


Call me Ishmael

by LicensedMinkey



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Everyone is in character tho, F/F, For the most part, I got annoyed with the way CW write the characters., Kinda AU, Way too stressed for that, minimal angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:41:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 74,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25411027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LicensedMinkey/pseuds/LicensedMinkey
Summary: A drunken phone call with Sam after learning Kara's identity has the two come up with a plan for Lena to get out of the shadow of the Luthor name.  And hopefully not shoot Kara in the process.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 414
Kudos: 757





	1. In With A Whimper

**Author's Note:**

> So! I have not watched all 5 seasons. Why? Because it annoys the shite out of me. My wife started watching it from season 1 and it just seems way to complicated with the Alien attack of the week and characters that came in with a bang and out with a whimper. 
> 
> By season 2 I was sat there with my jaw open thinking this was the gayest shit I had ever seen and whilst Katie McGrath could have sexual chemistry with a paint brush, it was ludicrous.  
> Anyhoo, a friend of mine, Alexis, to whom I refer to all things gay, explained that the show was stupid but the fanfic was pretty good. So I read some and thought, wow, these characters have such potential. But why are they throwing men at Kara left and right that treat her like crap, cant handle her strength and generally have d-bag written all over them. And why, why! Would you have a character like Lena Luthor, played by an incredibly sexy actress, and make her so wooden and overly emotional. Like the woman is a billionaire, did she never once think to hire a therapist?
> 
> And anyone who knows me, knows I have an arrogant streak a mile long and when people take such brilliant characters and fuck them up so badly, I like to go in and make them better. Fix them. Give them their full potential if you will.
> 
> So here we are. Think of this as an AU if you like, I looked up all the different characters in the show and the general plot lines and honestly I found war and peace easier. In Russian. 
> 
> Let's take these potentially awesome characters on an adventure! There will be character development, a plot, likely a fair amount of sex cause that is what gets the viewing numbers lets be honest. It will have feelings, but very little angst, I get enough of that in my own life. Humour. Definitely humour. A veritable smorgasbord of entertainment. You should read it. I will.

**Chapter 1**

_Mirrored in your face  
Is a look that says it all  
Boy I'm slow  
I've been uncertain  
Just couldn't be sure  
Now I know _

-K Wilde

“ _Take your shirt off.”_

_Kara practically inhaled the remnants of her sandwich and started coughing violently. “Excuse me, what did you say?”_

_Lena stood up, leaning on her fists on the top of her heavy desk, predatory gleam in her eyes. “Oh you heard me I have no doubt.“ She leaned forward even further. “Take. Your. Shirt. Off.” She stood up straight and folded her arms triumphantly._

_Kara dropped her sandwich on the desk, instinctively moving back from the desk and the odd behaviour of her friend. “See, I thought that's what, I mean, do I have like mayo or...” She looked down to be sure. “Um, Lena are you OK?” She couldn't help but worry about what was going on._

“ _So let's do this the hard way then.” Lena pulled the drawer out, reached in and pulled a snub nose revolver out, pointing it at the bewildered reporter. “Last chance Kara.”_

“ _Last chance to what? Lena what the heck are you doing?” Kara was backing up to the office door._

“ _Very well then.” Lena pulled up the weapon and aimed it at Kara, she squeezed the trigger, smirking the whole time._

********

“Yeah, no.” Sam looked through camera and shook her head. Facetiming with Lena was nothing if not amusing.

“Too Dramatic?”

“Well that depends, are you trying to rape and murder her at gunpoint? Because that's mostly what I got out of that.”

Lena made a disgruntled sound and flopped into her chair “And _I'm_ being dramatic Sam?”

“Why yes, yes Lena you are. Apart from the whole creepy sixties villain with a snub nose revolver and who uses one of those anyway? Old people that's who.” Sam started laughing. “Take off your dress my pretty that I might have my way with you! Mwaahahahaha.” Sam's evil laughter came through the speakerphone.

“I use one of those actually. And I did not sound like a creepy sixties villain. Anyway stop mocking me, I'm quite angry about all this you know.”

“I know honey, and I get why, but shooting Kara to prove she is Supergirl is going about it all the wrong way.”

“I heard Superman's girlfriend did it.” Lena said, sulking.

“Pretty sure that's an urban legend. Look, what if there was something wrong that day and for whatever reason she wasn't Supergirl. Maybe some alien whacked her with anti Supergirl juice and you go ahead and kill Kara Danvers. What then? Or how about she IS Supergirl and the bullet hits her, ricochets off and shoots you in the foot, so to speak.”

“I could use blanks.” Lena mumbled, clearly not past the idea of shooting Kara to prove a point.

“OK, let's narrow this down. What exactly are you angry about? That she didn't tell you yet that she is Supergirl?”

“Yet? You assume she would tell me.”

“And you assume she wouldn't. Why Lena? It's only been a year since you met her.”

“I've known her for 18 months, I have trusted her implicitly for a year. She swore she trusted me. Didn't see me as another Luthor. Supergirl clearly doesn't trust me, ergo, Kara doesn't.” Lena poured another glass of Scotch. “Honestly Sam it's a wonder I'm not a raging alcoholic. “

Sam raised an eyebrow at the size of Lena's glass. “Yeah I'm gonna leave that one to your therapist. Your insanely expensive therapist. I still cant believe how much you pay her.”

“Irish genetics, my ability to hold my alcohol surpasses Lillian's upbringing. And I pay her that much for a reason. In between daddy issues, mommy issues, my homicidal half brother, being forced into the closet until I was 18 and inheriting a fortune from a man that didn't so much adopt me as took me in because he was the sperm donor to my mother who I watched drown.”

Sam chuckled at Lena's casual rehashing of the insanity that was her life to far. “She's going to up your rates at the next session when you bring up Kara and Supergirl.”

“At this rate I'm going to just sign my account over to her.” Lena finished her drink and let out a tired sigh. “You know she had James try to seduce me to find out whether I had synthetic Kryptonite?” Lena huffed and refilled her glass.

“OK, yuck, and what makes you think he didn't do that all on his own. He has a weird lust hate thing going with you.” Sam threw back at her.

“Pfft, he does not.” Lena scoffed.

“Oh he most certainly does. He may dislike you intensely, but he clearly wants in the Luthor Vault.”

Lena burst out laughing. “You're disgusting. Stop making me laugh, I'm trying to be angry here.”

“Well, I think you should see it from Kara's point of view. Alex and those people at the DEO are scarily secretive. They weren't exactly welcoming to you despite the fact that you were the only one that could split me from Reign. I bet she has a lot of mini Iago's whispering in her ear, telling her you cant be trusted. But she does trust you honey, even as Supergirl she never stays out of grab and run distance.”

“Right, to make sure I'm not gonna flip a switch and go all evil genius. Supergirl was kind of a bitch about the Kryptonite Sam.” Lena sat back and Sam could hear how much it bothered her.

“Again though, see it from her side of things, she probably has everyone telling her not to trust you and you are the one person that has the one thing in the universe that can kill her. That has to be scary.” Sam waited for Lena to process that.

There was a choked sob from the phone. “Fuck. I'm never going to get out of the Luthor shadow am I? ”

Sam sighed wishing she was close enough to hug her friend. “No honey, you aren't.”

Lena slammed her glass down on the desk, annoyed at the crack that emerged in the pristine glass. “Then what the fuck am doing all this for Sam? Why am I trying to clean up a murderous legacy for a family that is actively trying to kill me? I never wanted this.” She rubbed her hands over her eyes. “Everything I do to take back the decency of the name, every fucking thing, they would undo it in a heartbeat. Every fucking week I have to face down a bunch of rich old men that want me out so they can go back to making money off war and weapons even though I make them more than Lex ever did. What the fuck am I doing this for?”

Sam could see the posture change that meant Lena had reached the end of her anger and was now just sad. Sad and tired of it all. 26 years old, a brain like a super computer and the desire to make the world a better place, all while carrying the world on her shoulders, placed there by the worlds most fucked up family. It really wasn't right. “Well, I've been having a few thoughts about that actually. Pour another drink baby, you're gonna need it!” Sam joked.

Lena opened the bottle, pouring liberally and ignoring the crack in the glass. “I'm all ears Sam, rock my world.”

********

“I just don't see why I cant tell her.” Kara ducked a potentially vicious back elbow from one of the agents.

Alex stood in the corner of the green glowing room making notes on a clipboard. “Ungh, not this again. You know why you can't tell her Kara.”

Kara caught a full kick in the stomach that made her want to lose her lunch. “OK stop, time out, time out.” She wheezed forcing her hands into a T position.

The agents looked to Alex for confirmation, when she nodded they filed out the door to wrap their various bruises.

“See that's the thing Alex, I don't know why I cant tell her. I know why you think I cant tell her, but I don't agree with that. Lena isn't like her family. How many times has she blindly helped us? Just dropped everything when we called? And she asks for nothing in return.”

“And she is not getting anything in return, we're not telling her Kara, we can't trust her. And I wish you could just accept that, this is to protect you.” Alex snapped as they left the Kryptonite training room.

Kara sighed. “I bet she could come up with a better solution to weaken me than Kryptonite. I hate that stuff, makes me feel sick.”

“Oh that's a splendid idea, let's ask a Luthor to spend time coming up with yet another way to make you powerless. We could give her the research we have on red sun rays, make it easier for her.” Alex had the most sarcastic smile she could muster. Kara wanted to knock it off her face sometimes.

“Make what easier for who know?” James walked down the stairs to where they stood.

Kara groaned internally. “Nothing, pay no attention.” She said quickly hoping it would deter Alex.

“We were talking about giving Lena Luthor the research we have on the red sun formulas to weaken Kara. Kara thinks this is a good idea.”

Kara really wanted to punch Alex then. If Alex was immovable on the subject, then James was downright murderous.

“Are you crazy?” He yelled.

“Hey, don't look at me, her idea.” Alex threw a thumb at Kara as she chugged her water down.

James looked at Kara horrified. “Oh brother.” She whispered and rolled her eyes. “K, you know what, I have to go, Snapper is already on my butt about that article on water pollution.”

“Oh, no, you don't get to use work as an excuse to avoid this.” James pointed at her. “You need to grow up and stop being naive about Lena, she will turn on you Kara, it's what they do.”

Kara glared at James and Alex worried her heat vision was about to “accidentally” pop out. “Excuse me, I am not naive, well, not like that anyway and I think I can make my own decisions about who my friends are.” She looked very pointedly at James. “And you know what else? You are not the boss of me.” She snapped.

“Technically I run Catco so yeah, I am the boss of you.” He smirked.

“Well feel free to point out where in my contract it says I cant choose my own friends.” Kara turned and walked away.

James went to say something else. Alex took pity on him and spared him from Kara's wrath. “Leave it James, when she gets this irritated, it's best to wait it out.” She tapped him on the shoulder as she went about her day.

Winn looked over as Kara stomped up the stairs to where he and Brainy were figuring out the optimal ambush position for his latest game. He smiled over at her, looked around to make sure no one was watching before he whispered. “I don't think Lena is evil.”

Kara smiled at him. “Right?”

Brainy stood up straight in that way that made Kara think he was either about to salute or make a speech. “I have never found Lena Luthor to be anything less than forthright and Honorable.”

Kara caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up to see Nia flash brainy a quick thumbs up. She smiled.

“Kara? A word?”

She stopped smiling at the sound of James' voice. “You made your point James, I get it, can we just leave it?”

James rested his hand on her arm. “Sorry Kara, I know you think she is a good person, I'm just trying to look out for you, you know that right? I care about you Kara, I wont see your hurt by the Luthors.”

Kara clenched her jaw. “Sure James.” She tried to smile but felt it might have come out more of a grimace of pain. She wanted to say something snarky like 'that's why you were trying to get her into bed not long ago' but didn't want to have to deal with the irritation that caused her. “I have to go, I don't want to deal with Snapper again if this pollution article isn't perfect.” She made air quotes around the word. “See you later guys.”

James and Alex waved goodbye as she vanished in a puff of air. Upstairs Nia came down to the computer desks and sat down next to Winn. “She is totally gonna tell Lena.” She laughed.

Winn nodded. “Totally is.”

Brainy tilted his head to one side. “Yes. Totally.”

********

_ A week later  _

Lena walked down by the river with Sam. “I cant believe I am doing this.”

Sam jostled their shoulders together. “Long overdue. What time is the agent meeting you here?”

Lena checked her watch. “About 10 minutes. He wont be late.”

Sam laughed. “Definitely not, especially after you told him about buying the old hostel building as well. What's up with that? Going into the hotel business?”

Lena let out an indelicate snort. “Can you imagine, Luthor airbnb.”

Sam shook her head. “Not for long.”

“No, not for long. God it feels like a weight has been lifted and it hasn't even started yet.”

“It's because you are moving in the right direction. So, hostel?”

“It's for the hospital. I read about something similar, when you have kids in hospital, it's hard for the parents to travel all the time, I think if we can turn it back into a working hostel, somewhere clean and safe and local for parents visiting their kids. Plus it stops anyone from buying it and turning it into some God awful nightclub.”

“How is the kids hospital? Isn't it nearly ready to launch?” Sam asked as they arrived at the warehouse.

“It is!” Lena couldn't hide her excitement. “I'm hoping that all of this will tie up nicely and launch at the same time. It's completely self funded. My intention is to rent the diagnostic and surgery rooms out at high rates to insurance companies to keep it funded without donations or outside investors. It's my flagship really, if it is up and running with no outside finance within a year, I want to look at starting another one. Then if that goes well I want them all over the country by the time I die. Which fingers crossed this new plan will make a lot longer in coming.” She rolled her eyes aware that the next attack on her life could be at any moment.

A man in a far too tight fitted suit came up to them, slightly out of breath from the walk and heat. “Miss Luthor? Robin McEvoy.” He held his hand out. “I hope you haven't had to wait long. Are you ready to see inside?”

“Lead on Mr McEvoy.” Lena smiled at him in excitement.

********

“Oh my God it's perfect!” Lena gasped. She looked around the dusty and battered interior with wide eyes. “Tell me Mr McEvoy, why is there a giant tree in the middle of the room?”

“Ah, yes, the original owners planted it in celebration of something many years ago, needless to say, it continued to grow. I don't think they thought too much in advance about that. By the time the owner died and handed it off to the kids, I think they felt too sentimental to do anything about it. I can arrange to have it taken down.”

Lena looked up at the tree, stretching all the way to the ceiling. It looked as though as it had grown too high, someone had forced the higher branches around the wall where it had continued to spread out. To Lena it was like a living space. A living, breathing building. “Absolutely not. It's perfect.” She smiled. The top of the warehouse was mostly glass, desperately in need of replacement, but if she replaced it all with decent glass, the whole inside would be like working outside. A far cry from the sterile offices she was used to. “Sam?”

Sam wandered over desperately trying not to touch anything. “I think you have an idea in your head about what it will look like when you are done and I really hope the next time I see it, that it's finished. Currently it looks like...” She looked around. “Well, as I said. Next time.”

“You lack vision Ms Arias.” Lena dragged her over. “Cover the roof in solar panels so it is self sufficient. And look here! I can drive right into the front of the building and park in this little concrete dug out! And look how tall it is, I can have some floors put in, it's perfect!” She kissed Sam on the lips with a loud mwah making her laugh and the agent cough uncomfortably. “Thank you Sam.”

Sam laughed and removed Lena's lipstick from her mouth. “I'm just the ideas guy, you're the brains that will make it work. I like the idea of a car port tho. It's going to be very bat-cave-esque.”

“You know there is enough room for a car and a bike down there.” Lena looked thoughtful.

Sam burst out laughing. “Oh God, are you have a late rebellious stage or an early mid life crisis?”

Lena grinned maniacally. “Both. I'm having both! Mr McEvoy, please draw up the documents as soon as is humanly possible, I have a lot of work to do! Oh, and I've decided to go ahead with the hostel project as well please.”

The agent smiled like he had hit the jackpot. “I will have it sorted faster than you can believe!”

They parted ways at the front entrance, Lena's mind going a mile a minute about what needed to be done. “C'mon, I'll buy you an ice cream Sam.” They walked arm in arm up the water front.

“Lena Luthor living large.” She laughed. “You know when it finally kicks off they are gonna fire me right?”

Lena nodded. “No doubt. Are you OK with that? I mean I assume you already thought of that when you came up with this plan?”

“Honestly, I wanted to walk away for a while, this is all selfish, I just didn't want to leave you in the shark tank on your own. Something will come up. Maybe I'll move to National City.”

Lena stopped and faced her friend. “I really hope you aren't joking. Nothing would make me happier than having you here.”

“Well, you have a lot of job openings coming up. Find me something to do and I will pack my bags.” She beamed at Lena and threw her arms around her.

“Oh, is that Kara?” Sam squinted against the sun.

Kara was standing with a man, both of them looking into the water splashing against the dock wall as though the answers to the worlds burning questions lay just underneath.

Lena turned around to look in the same direction. “I believe it is. Not sure about her friend, he looks like he just sailed in on the Pequod.” Despite her anger her face naturally softened and she smiled in Kara's direction.

“Oh you have it bad Luthor.” Sam chuckled.

“I really wish I didn't.” Lena sighed.

“Trust me, that girl hasn't got a deceptive bone in her body. $20 bucks says if you asked her outright if she was Supergirl she would stumble all over the place before breaking down. My money is on the DEO trying to make her feel like she cant trust you, I think they have her between a rock and a hard place. Give her a little time, especially with what you are about to rain down.”

Lena smiled softly in Kara's direction. “I hope so Sam. I hope you are right.”

“I'm completely right. I've seen the way she looks at you, you cant fake those looks my friend. How did you figure it out anyway?”

Lena started laughing. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Finger guns.”

Sam looked at her with her eyes wide. “I beg your pardon?”

“You know that stupid thing people used to do in the eighties or something, point their fingers as though they were guns. Like pew pew.” Lena mimicked the ridiculous gesture, blushing as she did. “Supergirl came by my office to give me an update on something, as she left she did that stupid gesture.” Lena mimicked it again before putting her hands resolutely in her pockets. “Next thing I know, my door is opening and Kara is walking in with lunch. I had to wrap it up quickly because I had a meeting. I apologised for kicking her out after she brought food and she smiled, said no probs and made those stupid finger guns at me as she closed the door. It suddenly made perfect sense! Honestly I wonder how much of my anger is at myself that I was fooled by a pair of glasses and a pony tail.”

“And that ass in the suit though.”

Lena blushed “Well quite. Kara!” She called out when the blonde started walking toward them.

“Lena!” She threw her arms around Lena leaving not an inch between them. Lena wanted so badly to push her away but found herself sinking into the blonde without conscious thought. “I've missed you! Every time I come to your office Jess says you've gone out.” She hugged her even tighter for a second.

“Hi Kara.” Sam smiled and found Kara's arms around her.

Lena was looking at them, she noticed the hug while more than friendly was nothing to the ones that Kara gave her. Her anger softened again.

Kara whipped out her notebook and laughed. “So! What's the scoop. Sam in town and Lena mysteriously disappearing for hours at a time. What's going on, should National City be concerned.”

Lena bristled at the implication but Kara. Sweet Kara, with that smile. There was nothing duplicitous about that smile. Lena found herself smiling back. “Actually, there is going to be a huge scoop coming up within about a month. Do you know any reporters that might be interested in breaking the news?”

Kara was shaking with excitement, Lena always felt that it was like sharing her life with a golden retriever. Then she thought that if her plan worked out perfectly, she could actually get a dog. She wondered what kind of dog Kara would want her to get. Probably the ugliest meanest thing at the pound that no one wanted. Probably spend most of it's time trying to bite Lena and rolling around on his back for Kara. She sighed.

“Any clues? Something I can tease Snapper with?” She bounced on the spot.

“Sorry, no clues. What's with you and Starbuck over there?” Lena nodded to the dock hand as Sam chuckled.

“Starbuck?” Kara looked around.

Sam laughed. “Lena was saying your friend there looked like he sailed in on the Pequod.”

Kara continued looking confused. Lena gasped at her. “You haven't read Moby Dick?”

Kara shook her head and made a weird face like she might have missed out on something really important. She makes a vow to read Moby Dick at the earliest opportunity.

Sam burst out laughing. “Pay no attention to Lena, she's a book snob. Most people haven't read Moby Dick Kara, I only know the characters because Lena likes to show off when she reads to Ruby.”

Kara beamed at the name. “How is Ruby? Is she settled in Metropolis?”

“She is, but thankfully she is open to change easily enough.” Sam winked at Kara.

“Oh my gosh you are totally coming back to National City aren't you? Is that the big secret? Are you coming back to L-Corp? C'mon, you have to tell me!” Kara pleaded.

“Sorry Kara, it really is a giant pile of moving parts but I give you my word, as soon as things assemble, the exclusive is yours.” Lena smiled at her.

“Fine, fine. I can wait. How long can I wait for?” She started doing what Lena had secretly termed the puppy wiggle.

“Probably no longer than a month?” Lena looked at Sam.

Sam nodded. “Sounds about right. I hope so anyway.”

“Well this sounds all terribly mysterious and not nearly as much fun as water pollution but alas, that is the article for today.” She looked at Lena. “Will I see you soon? I feel like it's been ages.” She pulled Lena into a hug.

Lena couldn't help it, she held on longer than usual, whispering into Kara's ear. “Soon, I really do have a lot going on right now, but I promise, only good things.”

Kara squeezed back before pulling away before she said something embarrassing. “OK, alright. Um. Yeah. K bye! Bye Sam!” Kara briskly walked away trying very hard not to fall over her feet.

“Oh she has it bad as well. What do the kids call it these days? Ruby told me. Oh! Useless gays. That was it.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “C'mon, we have a lot to get done in the few days I have you and honestly, I am so excited!”

****

“Hey babe, you home?” Alex dropped her crash helmet at the door, casually throwing her keys in a bowl.

“In the bedroom!” Maggie shouted.

“Now that's how I want to come home, tell me dinner is ready and I'll marry you right now.”

Maggie walked out to greet her girlfriend, her hair still wet from the shower. “Sorry baby, all I got is the number for a new Thai place.” She put her arms around Alex and squeezed gently. “Someone's tense. Bad day?”

“Oh you have **no** idea!” She moved around the kitchen putting some coffee together. “Kara went on another of her Lena Luthor isn't evil and I want to tell her about Supergirl so I can date her!” She said it in a high pitch whine.

“She admitted that?” Maggie stood in shock over the Thai menu. “She actually came out finally and said it?”

“No, but you know that's why. She has this dumb ass crush on Lena and thinks she cant, and I'm quoting here, court her with this big secret hanging over me.”

Maggie put her hand over her mouth. “That is so freaking cute, she said court her? Actually used that word?”

Alex glared at her. “It's not cute. She's gonna get hurt. Ungh, can you imagine her dating Lena Luthor? She has no idea how badly that will blow up in her face.”

Maggie shook her head. “You don't think your sister is able to figure these things out on her own? C'mon Alex, she is a grown ass woman, you cant keep protecting her. And honestly I don't think she needs protecting with Lena.”

Alex stomped around the kitchen, mentally counting to ten before she said something she couldn't take back. Behind her Maggie shook her head and started calling the delivery number. Alex was hotheaded at the best of times, but about Kara? There wasn't much she could do about that. Lena on the other hand. Lena she could definitely give the shovel talk to. Smiling as she read off the menu, she mentally worked out her timeline tomorrow to find a gap that she could visit L-Corp.

****

Kara walked up to her door, mentally exhausted from dealing with Snapper and his constant jibes, James and his giant ego and Alex. She had three pizzas balanced in one hand, her bag with all her stuff in held in the other hand and keys in her teeth. She noticed a small package at the door. She spent far too long trying to pick it up and get the door open without putting anything down.

She put the pizzas down gently, dropped her bag where she stood and held the package in her hands. It was beautifully wrapped in brown paper and wound with a red ribbon holding it together. Part of Kara wanted to just hold it, finding it too delicate to open. There was only one person she knew that would have done this.

With a smile, she pulled apart the ribbon bow allowing the paper to naturally unfold. A well thumbed copy of Moby Dick sat in the pristine paper. She instinctively held it to her nose, smiling, convinced that this worn copy of Lena's still contained some trace of her scent.

She opened to the front and saw the flowing script that she knew as being Lena's.

_Darling Ishmael,_

_I hope this gives you as much  
pleasure as it has given me _

_All love  
Ahab _

Grabbing one of the pizza boxes she sat on her couch and started to read.


	2. This is the way the world ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Longer than usual delay in updates. Apologies for that. My pupper blew out her knee (ACL) Several thousand bucks poorer and desperately in need of sleep. Me, not her. She has so many sedatives in her and still refuses to sleep. She cant understand why she isn't allowed to go out and play with her sister. It's all very exhausting.

** Chapter 2 **

_Take a breath and try to play along but  
I’m a terrible liar  
I feel the world like a brick on my chest  
and the party’s just begun_

_ -A Lee _

_ **** _

_ 2 weeks later _

“You know I can barely hear you over the noise!” Sam shouted through the facetime. She watched as Lena walked her around the warehouse she had bought. There had to have been about 50 people wandering around with various tools and pieces of wood or metal and something that looked like a stripper pole. There were some things Sam knew it was best not to bring up on an open line. “I have to say, the change is amazing. How long before it's habitable?”

Lena spun the phone around showing her toothy smile to Sam. “Any day now! I have a ton of new toys coming! I wont bore you with the details, I know you don't care.” Lena walked outside to get some quiet while she spoke. “I bought this as well, look!” She panned the phone around to a row of decrepit storefronts along the water. Her phone landed on two guys sitting quietly huddled in one of the doorways. She noted the jackets that identified them as veterans. She figured by the dishevelled look they were also homeless. “Sam let me call you back in a minute!”

Walking with determination towards the two men who were watching her approach with interest.

“Are you gonna tell us to move?” One of them asked politely.

“Actually I was going to ask if you wanted a few days work. Mostly grunt work to be fair, moving heavy things from A to B but the rates are pretty good and they'll feed you.”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Work is work lady, where do you need us?”

Lena pointed to the chaos going on in the corner building. “Ask for the foreman, tell him Lena sent you.”

The two men stood up towering over her. “You're Lena?”

“For my sins, I am.” She smiled and held her hand out.

“Tucker.” He took her hand, his own practically dwarfing her. “This here is Ozzy, he doesn't talk.”

Lena shook his hand as well. “You don't look shy.” She smiled at him when he grinned at her.

“We call him Ozzy 'cause he tried to bite the head off of a 762 sniper round, took his larynx out.” Tucker laughed and Ozzy shrugged.

Lena frowned thinking it was probably some pop culture reference that she had never heard of. “Well, lesson learned then I suppose. Just make sure to let the foreman know in advance, I can't see as it will matter much, honestly the noise they are making I for one will be glad of your company.” She let go of his hand.

She walked toward the water edge and called Sam back. The phone continued ringing and Lena was about to hang up when a breathless Sam came on the line. “Sorry, I was in with my broker, my phone managed to end up at the bottom of the bag.” She laughed.

“Was that the last batch?” Lena asked hopefully.

“Yeap, by my reckoning he should have enough shares to sit on the board and vote you out. I've never known someone so excited to be fired!”

Lena smiled, looking over the water, feeling as though finally she was on the edge of getting some peace. “Well, we'll find out soon enough. So, I had a thought about your new vocation.”

“Do tell!” Sam replied happily.

“Come and run my hospital.” 

Sam laughed. “I appreciate the offer, but really, what do I know about running a hospital?”

“What did you really know about L-Corp when you started?” Lena challenged.

“Oh come on, little different don't you think?” Sam complained, but Lena could hear the interest.

“Yes and no, I have people in the right positions for what they do, I just need someone to make the final call based on the information they get. Keep an eye on finances and make sure it stays self funding. You're smart enough to learn on the job and more importantly you're smart enough to know when to call in help. And most importantly, I trust you.”

“Pulling out the big guns I see.” Sam sighed. “Ah what the hell, might be nice to be a force for good. Alright, count me in.”

Lena's smile could have lit up the world. “I miss you. You and Ruby. I'm really going to enjoy having you back.”

They continued to talk for a while longer making plans before Lena went back to work.

****

“Ponytail! Get in here!” A gruff yell rang out over the office.

Kara sighed. Saving her work quickly before heading into Snapper's office, knowing he wouldn't be interested in waiting while she finished up. 

“Need a quote from the Luthor woman. She'll talk to you, find out what she knows and when she knows it. Push her if you have to. You do know how to push don't you?”

Kara took a deep breath before she told Snapper where he could push off to. “Sure do!” She plastered a fake smile on. “What am I asking Lena about?”

“Jesus Christ! Do you even keep up on the news? Three people were just caught trying to break into Strykers Island. You know Strykers Island Ponytail? Where they're holding Lex Luthor?”

Kara tried to hide the panic as she nodded vehemently. “Right, that news, on it boss!” She ran as fast as would seem humanly out of the office before finding a suitable place to transform to Supergirl.

She landed at the DEO in minutes later and straight into utter chaos. Alex was storming around shouting orders at various agents, Winn and Brainy were typing into computers and randomly swapping seats to further their inquiries. Alex was the first to spot her.

“You heard?

Kara nodded.

“Lena say anything?”

Kara glared at her sister. “Why do you think Lena would know anything? Do you all keep forgetting that she wore a wire to turn him in? What makes you think she suddenly wants him out? And how many times does he have to try and kill her before you give her the benefit of the doubt?”

“Calm down Romeo, I didn't say she was involved. Well?”

“Well what?” Kara snapped back.

Alex took a deep breath and ran her hands over her face. She looked up having gotten her temper under control. “Has Lena said anything about Lex breaking out.”

Kara sighed and shook her head. “Why would she? You know what, forget it. I haven't spoken to Lena in over a week. I don't even know if she knows.”

“Why are you two not speaking? You're normally joined at the hip. ” Alex asked.

Kara blushed. “We're not not speaking, she's been busy, I think there is something going on with L-Corp that has her busy.”

Alex stopped moving. “Something like what? She hasn't told you?”

“I give in. Lena has nothing to do with this. She runs a damn business Alex, is it really such a surprise that she might be busy? I'm going over there next, Snapper wants a quote from her.”

“Let me know what she says OK?” Alex reminds her.

Kara threw her one last glare before flying out.

“I don't believe Lena has any knowledge of Lex trying to escape. Logically she would be in peril if he were to be released.” Brainy spoke from his platform at the computer.

Winn looked at him as though he had grown a second head. “Dude. Are you crazy?” He whispered.

Alex glared at them both. “Do you have those reports yet?” She turned and walked away.

****

Jess poked her head into Lena's office. “Ms Luthor, I have a Detective Sawyer here to talk to you. She doesn't have an appointment, shall I tell her you're busy?”

Lena looked up from her paperwork in surprise. “Uh, no, that's fine, show her in Jess.”

Maggie sauntered into the office as though she owned the place. Lena was often quite envious of Maggie's ability to 'front' her way into anything. “Detective, how can I help you?” She gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

“Ms Luthor, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.”

“I always have time for National City's finest.” Lena smiled at her. “Now that the pleasantries are over, what am I supposedly caught up in this time?”

Maggie laughed loudly and tapped her hand on Lena's desk causing the CEO to look at her in confusion. “See this is why I've always liked you Luthor, despite that giant brain of yours, you really are not interested in being sneaky.”

Lena raised her eyebrow, got up and walked to her drinks cabinet. “Don't be too sure of that Detective.” She tilted a bottle of scotch in invitation that Maggie was certain cost more than her salary.

“Eh, it's five o'clock somewhere. Thank you.” She took the offered glass and took a moment to appreciate the fact that she was about to down the liquid equivalent of a small hatchback. “Oh I don't doubt you can hold your own, but you don't do it gratuitously, I like that about you.” She toasted her host and sipped the whisky, remembering not to treat it like a shot at the bar. 

“So how can I be honest with you Detective?” Lena toasted her back and smirked before taking her own delicate sip.

“Well, Alex hates you so no point in waiting for her to ask. What exactly are your intentions toward my future sister in law?”

Lena had never been so glad to she didn't take her normal slug as she choked on the expensive scotch. “Excuse me? Did you seriously just ask me that?”

“C'mon Lena, I extended my compliments that you are straightforward and upfront, don't play coy now. What are your intentions toward Kara?” Maggie lay back in her seat to watch the various thoughts run across Lena's face.

Lena took another sip to cover having nearly spat her previous one across the room. Alex and Maggie were practically engaged, she worked with the DEO and knew about aliens and other various government shenanigans. It was likely she knew Kara was Supergirl. “Well, Maggie, my intentions toward Kara are somewhat on hold until she can decide whether she wants to share her extra curricular activities with me.” That was vague enough in case Maggie didn't know.

Apparently Maggie did. “Ah, I see. I figured you must know. I didn't mention it to Alex obviously, I would hate to see you disappear into a black windowless van.” She chuckled.

Lena wasn't sure whether to laugh or wonder if it might happen. “Well, Alex needs to learn to let go. Kara isn't a child. And Kara needs to stand on her own two feet and decide for herself who is trustworthy and who isn't.”

Maggie could tell that last sentence was somewhat bitten off. “No argument here. When did you figure it out? Was it the lame ponytail and glasses disguise? Or the fact that all her friends seem to show up with Supergirl and Kara?” 

Lena looked out of the window and smiled. “Actually I'm still a little sore on that subject that no, in fact I didn't notice the lame disguise.”

“So if not that, what gave it away?” Maggie finished her scotch and looked at her curiously.

Lena sighed as she moved to the cabinet to refill the glasses. “Finger guns.”

Maggie roared with laughter and even Lena couldn't help but laugh with her.

“Fucking finger guns. Oh man that is epic. She really doesn't believe that no one else does that.” Maggie took the offered glass and continued laughing. “For what it's worth, she desperately wants to tell you. It's building up to a huge confrontation with Alex. And James.”

Lena frowned. “Did Kara have James try to seduce me to get information on whether I had Kryptonite?”

Maggie burst out laughing again. “Oh hell no, did he really? Oh that's just wrong.” She got her laughter under control again. “No, no way would she have done that. She has no idea he did that.”

“How can you be sure?” Lena asked.

“Because she would have kicked his ass from here to Metropolis if she knew. And I would have heard about it from Alex for sure. Nope, not a chance she knew. Can I tell her?” She grinned.

Lena smiled. “Probably best not to. Although tempting.”

“Pretty sure if James was trying to get in your pants it was his own brilliant idea.” Maggie shook her head wondering how these people ever got into the high positions they did. “Truthfully, I think you would be good for Kara.”

Lena's eyebrow raised nearly off her skull.

“Really!” Maggie continued. “I love Alex, I do. And I love Kara as well. But they need to step away a little. Alex gave up everything for Kara, to protect her identity, make sure she fit in, stayed safe. She's done it for so long, I think it's all she knows. And Kara? Kara has always relied on Alex to clean up any mistakes or learning curves. She needs to learn to stand on her own two feet and Alex needs to let her go and make her own mistakes and learn from them. I think Alex is scared to because it means confronting who she is, as her own person you know?”

Lena nodded, never having thought of the close relationship between the Danvers sisters like that. “And Kara needs to figure out who she is without Alex to bail her out.” 

Maggie raised the last of her glass in agreement. “Couldn't agree more. Well, I got what I came for. Be nice to little Danvers, you really don't want to piss Alex off, her bite is far worse than her bark.” She winked at Lena.

“Duly noted. I'm glad you came by, it's nice to feel like I have an ally.” Lena stood up assuming the conversation was over.

Maggie stood as well and smiled at her. “Or a friend? I like you Lena, truly. Honesty, especially if you don't want it, is a rare commodity.”

Lena blushed a little and looked down, very unused to people treating her as anything other than a social pariah. She handed over a card with her phone number on it. “Even better. I'm going through a few changes here at L-corp, but give it a couple of weeks and I'll be free for coffee. Or lunch.” She held out the card pleased when Maggie took it and put it somewhere she would see it later.

She was about to walk Maggie out when a blur of blonde charged into her office. “Don't say another word without your lawyers!” Kara stood defiantly next to Lena, much to her confusion. “And Maggie I thought better of you. Lena had nothing to do with this.”

Maggie started laughing again. “Well Luthor, what ever it is you did this time, I am officially off the clock. Good luck.” She waved as she walked out the door.

Kara watched her go. “Oh. Well. OK then. Right. Good. Um. Hi!” She turned to Lena.

“Kara what on earth is going on? What did I do now?”

“Right! Well, firstly, you didn't do anything. Three guys were caught trying to break into Strykers, and of course every one assumes it has to do with Lex, but they don't know! They could have been trying to get to anyone. And who breaks _into_ a prison anyway?”

Lena smiled at her flustered friend. “What was the second thing?” She asked her quietly. Kara stared at her in confusion. “You said firstly, implying you had something to add.” She lead her gently through the conversation.

“Oh, um I got your gift. I read it the same night.”

“In one night?” Lena opened her mouth in shock.

“Oh, uh, yeah, fast reader. Always have been.” She smiled awkwardly.

Lena chuckled, remembering who she was really talking to. “Of course. And what did you think?”

“It was so sad. That poor whale! I was going to tell you earlier, but you've been so busy I never manage to get hold of you apart from a few texts and I didn't want to tell you over a text cause I use _way_ too many emojis according to Alex, although Nia says I use a proportionate amount, but anyway.” She took a breath and flung her arms around Lena, squeezing her enough to almost lift her off the floor. “You are **not** Ahab. Not at all. You are nothing like him.”

Lena choked up at the words. Her heels put her at the same height as Kara so she kissed the side of her head and spoke quietly through her tears. “Thank you.”


	3. Out with a Bang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I get my 'tense' mixed up a bit, you know, current and past. Sorry about that, hopefully it doesn't throw you out of the mindset. I blame my lack of education. You should see what I can do with grammar.

_Please stop, you're scaring me  
I can't help this awful energy  
God damn right, you should be scared of me  
Who is in control?_

- _Helsey_

****

_1 week later_

Lena sat in her new office, now blissfully free of men, trash, dust and noise. The shattered and scratched glass in the roof had been replaced leaving the inside as bright as the outside. A button press turned the glass darker by degrees as though the panels have put on sun glasses and still the inside was open and bright and airy. The large tree in the middle of the room had been trimmed and watered and stood like a sleeping guardian over her as she worked.

There were several floors added, open planned, each with some weird scientific machine on them, staircases ran from each floor, up and down and side to side like a simple Escher painting.

Even her new car 'port' had been upgraded to have a simple lift element to bring the driver up to the main floor.

She sat at the main computer station, a monolith board of monitor screens currently blank but ready to show any and all information from the various machines she had installed across the converted warehouse.

She rattled off a few keys to bring the server to life and entered the shutdown sequence to test it. Thick metal rods rolled quietly across the ceiling, barring any entry. The same rods slid down in front of the main door and garage entrance. A click to the left made her look up to see the secondary entrance that could only be accessed by someone with a ladder or the ability to fly. Lena was still a bit touchy over the Supergirl situation so wouldn't bring herself to admit that she had added an ease of use entrance for her friend.

When the bars locked in place, the staircases began to retract leaving the various floors unreachable. She stood up away from the computer as the giant workstation folded in on itself and dropped slowly below floor level. A plain concrete slab moved over the area the workstation had just been. Finally an area at the back of the warehouse opened revealing an elevator. She stepped inside, offered a hand scan while the computer confirmed her retinas. The elevator moved downward as the opening closed up showing a plain wall to anyone unaware of the elevators existence.

As the short ride finished, she stepped into a room with a landline phone attached to an unregistered line. She sat at a small desk and offered her hand print again to bring up a small console that controlled the security and cameras. Behind her was an industrial grade safe where she kept all the artifacts and chemicals that she deemed too dangerous to leave with L-Corp. She picked up the phone to make sure there was a dial tone, activated the cameras and sat back with a smile.

The high end company she worked with to install security had done an incredible job in both implementation and keeping it off the blueprints. The contractors they used were constantly cycled so no one outside of Lena and the chief designer would ever know this place existed. She almost looked forward to her mother and brothers attempts at breaking in. A large donation to the police widows funds ensured that if a call was placed for assistance Lena would have a swat team within 5 minutes of placing the call. Now she just had to wait.

She noticed a delivery truck pull up and realized that the last of her laboratory equipment was here. The door chime sounded even in the panic room. She punched in the code to disable the console and return the upstairs to its original state before walking back to the elevator, pressing the button to go back to the main floor.

She pressed a buzzer to let the man with the paperwork in and another to slide a floor over the car port to allow for deliveries. She scribbled her name quickly before looking up in alarm.

“I beg your pardon?” She asked the delivery man.

“I was saying you got these just in time, the laws are gonna change soon and you wont be able to get them.”

Lena frowned at him. “Why are the laws changing for centrifuges?”

The delivery man frowned back at her. “Centrifuges?” He repeated dumbly.

“Isn't that what you have? It's the last thing I am waiting on.”

“Um, that's not what I have here.”

Lena looked behind her as a crate was rolled in. Her eyes widened in horror. “What the actual fuck?” Her voice rose 2 octaves.

The delivery man looked at his paper work. “Yeah I'm gonna go with clerical error. There is a 2 digit difference between what I think you want and what we have. Sorry love. OK I can take these back to the lab and get the order changed. Probably be another week though, is that OK?”

“So, what happens to this?” She pointed at the cage.

“It's not a problem, people always want lab animals, especially now with the laws changing. Wont be an issue returning them.” He smiled and Lena wanted to punch him.

Lena looked at the two pitiful creatures in the cage huddle together in fear at the back of the crate. She sighed. Kara would never know, but if she ever did, she would never forgive her. “Just, leave them. I'll keep them but can you please arrange for my actual order to be delivered.

The delivery man shrugged and walked out with his paperwork. Lena ran to her computer to shut the doors down and frantically typed in her browser, _squirrel monkey natural diet_ quickly followed by _monkey sanctuary_.

She grabbed her purse and headed out to her waiting L-Corp driver.

****

20 minutes later she was sat with a squirrel monkey in each arm, both happily munching on figs smearing an unusually large amount of it in Lena's hair while she tried to control the volume of her voice on the phone call. “Look, I appreciate that you don't normally take laboratory monkeys but they haven't been used as lab animals. For all intents and purposes they are unwanted pets and your literature states that you accept unwanted pets.” She huffed handing over more figs to the larger of the two tiny creatures that was pulling her ear. “Yes, I know they are not actually unwanted pets, but if I were to call back tomorrow and claim they were, you would take them right?” She desperately looked for a loophole. “For the love of God, yes, I appreciate you would recognize my _tone_ , however if I had a staff member call, you wouldn't know any difference.” She waited for the voice to finish talking before sighing loudly. “Right, so lab monkeys are given chips to track them. Great. OK, so what if I donated to your organisation? And I mean enough to double your property size, would that make a difference?” The voice said something that set a fire in Lena's eyes. “Because I don't have time to run my own monkey sanctuary! Oh this is ridiculous.” She pressed the end call and slammed her phone down startling the smaller of the two monkeys who shrieked in her ear leaving her with a ringing noise.

“Sorry fuzzy, you OK? Have a banana.” She patted his head and ran her hands over her eyes. She grabbed the phone and sent a text to Kara.

****

Alex paced around the central console at the DEO. Glaring at random objects. “So all three of them were in custody and neither of them said anything then some 3 grand an hour suit bailed them out and now we don't know where they are and who was behind it. Does that about sum it up?” She snapped.

Winn swallowed before answering her. “We're pretty sure it was Cadmus, if you chase the money up the chain far enough through the various shell companies we can see connections between previous Cadmus expenditure and this. It's pretty tenuous though and considering how we found the information you'll never get a warrant.”

“Alright, can you flag the accounts to alert us next time any transactions occur?”

Winn nodded and started typing. Alex sat down and looked over at Kara who was reading her phone.

“I'm sorry, are we boring you?” She asked sarcastically.

“Little bit. I can never follow the financial stuff. Lena just sent me a weird text. Wants to know if I can write an article about laboratory animals and the laws that mean sanctuaries cant accept them. What do you think that is about?” Kara looked up at Alex.

“Are you freaking kidding me? I have no idea what that means, I do have a question of my own though. Apparently someone broke into a Sea World place in Mexico and stole both of their killer whales. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?”

Kara tried to look disinterested, she really did. She knew she was a terrible liar, it was a standing joke that she couldn't lie if her life was on the line. “Why would you think that?” She tried to stall.

“Oh I just wondered what with your new found love of whale literature.” Alex squinted at her trying to get her to crack.

“Actually, Moby Dick whilst the name of the whale, is not really what the story is about, it's more about...”

“Kara!” Alex shouted.

“Right, killer whales. I mean what would anyone want with them? Weird huh?”

“Yeah, very weird. Apparently they were released in the Pacific the same night.”

Kara froze. “What? How could they know that?”

Alex sighed, her suspicions confirmed. “Trackers Kara, they had Trackers in them.”

“You know I wonder if it is something nefarious. Maybe that's what Lena was asking about. I'll go ask her. Lemme know if you find a link to Cadmus!” She flew out as fast as she could.

“God damn it Kara!” Alex yelled knowing her sister could hear her.

****

“Mr Edge to see you Ms Luthor. He is not taking no for an answer.” Jess pulled the door behind her.

Lena sighed, put her pen down and looked up. “He rarely does. But that's not always a bad thing. Send him in Jess.”

Morgan Edge was not an overly tall man, Lena suspected him of wearing lifts in his shoes and was certain that his suits were padded around the shoulders. Regardless of how he tried to appear, Lena always thought he looked like he needed a shower. Lena always felt like she needed a shower when dealing with him.

“Mr Edge, what's so important that you have to man handle your way into my afternoon.”

He smiled at her, smug and self aggrandized. “Checking out my new office.”

Lena laughed. “Your new office you say? I hate to break it to you but it's currently occupied.”

He smiled back at her. “You haven't heard? There's a board meeting tomorrow. There is going to be a vote of no confidence.”

Lena shrugged disinterestedly. “Been there, done that. Several times. Let's wait until it happens before shopping for curtains don't you think?”

He stalked toward her menacingly just as the door opened and Kara walked in. He stopped in his tracks and sneered at Lena. “You're done Luthor, not even your pet reporter can help you now.” He threw a look of disgust at Kara and stormed out of the office.

“Hey!” Kara yelled after him but he ignored her. “How rude. Not a pet.” She walked further into Lena's office.

“Always just in time to save me.” Lena smiled at her then started sniffing the air. “Kara why do you smell like the ocean?”

“Oh, um, new detergent, trying out a new one. I don't think I'll keep it though.” Kara blushed.

“Huh, well it's very realistic. So what brings you to my office?” Lena sat back down.

“Game night! We're having a game night tomorrow and it sounds like you are going to have a crappy day, excuse my language, so you should totally come. You've been promising for ages, but crying off with how busy you are. And I happen to speak to Sam earlier and I know she is in town doing whatever super secret things that I totally don't care about and certainly don't spend far to long thinking about so you both have to come.” She smiled so wide Lena wondered how her face didn't crack. “Please? I haven't seen you in forever and I miss you.”

Lena smiled and held her arms open for Kara to walk into. “I would love to come.” Lena started laughing as Kara practically vibrated with happy.

****

Lena spent the vast amount of the next day tying up all the loose ends that she could think of. Truthfully she had thought she had a few more days but as far as she could tell, everything was in order and it was too late now to worry about it. She checked into the security system at L-Corp and made sure her backdoor was still in place and not spotted. With nothing to do but wait, she opened YouTube to catch up on all the links that Kara had sent her over the last month.

Just after lunch Jess came into her office flustered. Lena looked up in alarm because in the years she had known her Jess had never not knocked.

“The board is already meeting!” She practically yelled. “Why are you not there?”

Lena felt a little bad about the deception as Jess was clearly stressed. “They haven't invited me. As far as I am aware, the meeting to oust me is in an hour.”

“Well they are obviously up to something! Cant you go in there now and stop them?” Jess all but screamed.

“No need. They are meeting now so that no one has to stand up and argue with me I am quite sure. No, I have a meeting with them in an hour. I'll deal with it then.”

Jess left the office, wondering what had got into her usually manic boss.

Lena left the office an hour later stopping at Jess's desk. She lowered her voice and told her assistant what she needed to do. Jess looked at her wide eyed. “Are you sure?” Lena was surprised to hear her assistant's voice break slightly.

“Quite sure. See you on the other side.” She winked and proceed to the meeting. Jess quietly wished her luck.

Pushing open the door she saw the entire board had convened. She noticed the head of security standing quietly in the corner.

“Gentlemen, I see you are all here.”

Morgan Edge stood from his seat a nasty smile on his face. “Actually, we've been here a while. I've spent the last month quietly buying enough shares to out you as CEO. You're done Luthor.” He made a big show of moving to the seat at the head of the table where the CEO would normally be sat. “So just to make it all legal. He gestured to one of the company lawyers left over from Lex's time in office. There was very little love lost between them, Lena was going to enjoy this enormously.

“As per your contract, you are forbidden from speaking to the press about any and all business to do with Luthor Corp and L-Corp. Obviously you retain ownership of your shares but you wont be permitted to sit on the board meetings. We will of course send you the minutes.” He grinned at her. “Further you are prohibited from starting any business that is deemed to be in competition with L-Corp or partnering with any current or previous investors. We will also sue for any technology you design as a private person that is deemed to be started or considered by L-Corp. Any and all patents filed by you as a private person will be handed over to L-Corp as they are deemed as per your contract to be the property of the aforementioned company as any and all work was done on company time.” He looked up at her, waiting for her to speak.

She looked at Morgan Edge grinning so much he was practically drooling. She took a deep breath. “Sorry, no.”

Morgan faltered slightly. “What do you mean no? It's done. I have enough shares to sit on the board. I brought the no confidence vote, it's passed. What part of that don't you understand Lena?” He smirked.

“Oh, the vote, no confidence, I get that. Fair enough. But the contract, see that's where we have a problem.”

The lawyer pulled out the contract again. “Your contract clearly states everything in the parts I've highlighted.” He pushed it over to her.

Lena leaned forward, her hands on the table, looking around the room and holding the gaze of every powerful man in the room. When she was sure she had their attention. She spoke. “That's _your_ contract, not mine. Everyone one of you signed it when the company was renamed L-Corp and taken from the ashes of Lex Luthor's villainy to the thriving company you sit on today. _My_ contract is still the one Lex drew up and he didn't bother with all that legal stuff. As you know, if Lex fired you, you would almost certainly be too dead to start a competing company or salvage patents.” She slid a copy of her contract to the lawyer, the relevant missing sections highlighted in red.

He scanned through it, his face going pale as he read it.

“Further I will be starting my own company, I wont need investors but if I do, I will contact anyone that I please and I would suggest you don't get too comfortable in that chair Mr Edge. You're not the only one quietly slithering around buying shares, Lillian Luthor, the suspected ring leader of the terrorist organization Cadmus has also been buying shares. And between what she has and her guardianship of Lex's shares, she now has controlling interest and I have no doubt will be firing her broom up as soon as you release the news of my demise.” She stared down at a very sickly looking Morgan Edge.

“If you make a deal with the devil Mr Edge, don't be surprised when she turns up to collect. Good luck gentleman, I'm sure your money is quite safe from the government confiscating it when Cadmus is officially associated with my Mother. That's assuming the share prices don't drop through the floor when the news gets out.” She looked at her watch. “Which by my reckoning, should be about now.”

She lifted the remote control at the corner television and switched it on. The volume was muted but the headlines about L-Corp were flashing across the screen as reporters started to gather at the entrance to building.

Morgan Edge jumped to his feet at the room erupted in chaos. “You're bluffing! You'll be ruined! You still have shares, they'll be worthless!” He yelled at her.

“I am my fathers daughter and you are a treacherous little snake. Did you really think I didn't know what you were planning? Are you so arrogant to think you can outsmart a Luthor? I hedged mine months ago. They are worth the same as they have always been. And now you have so kindly kicked me out, I am legally free to cash them in. Maybe invest in a new company. Good day gentlemen.”

Edge yelled at the head of security still waiting in the corner. “Escort Ms Luthor out of the building. Now!”

The absolutely chaos of everyone yelling over everyone and often at Edge himself, she barely heard the head of security. “Show her out yourself. Bunch of cowards.” He flung his credentials on the table and put a gentle arm around Lena as he walked her to the door.

Lena looked at him in confusion.

“You probably don't remember, my son fell in with a bad lot, had to go to rehab or jail. I had to take a week or so off to deal with it.” He took a deep breath to compose himself. “My wife and I had no idea how we were going to pay for it. Then out of the blue, we get an invoice from the rehab centre, paid in full. The director said it was an anonymous payment but I knew it was you, it could only have been you.”

Lena blushed. “You didn't need to quit.” She spoke quietly.

He smiled at her. “Ah, it wont be as much fun around here with your mother.”

Lena laughed. She pulled out a card from her purse. “Call this number. They will need people like you. Tell them who you are, I'll make sure they are expecting you.”

He nodded at her as he took the card. “Thank you ma'am.”

“Lena, just Lena now.”

He tipped his hat at her and walked away.

Lena made her way back to her office to retrieve her stash of expensive scotch, determined not to leave it to her mother, to find Jess packing up her desk. “Not staying around for the fun?” She asked.

“No I am not. I'm going with you.” She put her hands on her hips daring Lena to deny it. “I have a ton of vacation saved up because you cant be left alone for 10 minutes without getting yourself shot, or poisoned, or exploded. So I am taking that instead of notice.”

Lena gave her a genuine smile. “Sadly I don't need someone where I'm going, however you know Sam Arias?”

Jess nodded.

“She is going to be running my children's hospital, it opens soon, she's in the middle of moving back to National City, and she's going to need a good right hand. Granted it wont be as exciting as being shot, or poisoned or exploded, but I think you deserve a break from all that don't you?”

Jess came around the desk and hugged her surprising them both. “Thank you Lena, for everything.”

Lena hugged her back tightly. “I do believe that is the first time you have ever called me anything other than Ms Luthor.”

Jess laughed. “That you heard, yes.”

Lena just held her tighter.

****

“OK, remember, be nice to Lena tonight, this has got to be super hard on her.” Kara looked around her friends as they got ready for game night.

J'onn nodded. “I dread to think who will end up running Luthor Corp now.”

James shrugged. “Probably wont matter, did you see their share price? Man I feel sorry for anyone that has shares in that place now. Lena might have to live like the rest of us lowly people now.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “See? This is what I'm taking about. Can we just have a pleasant night? Lena is our friend, she has always been there for us. Can we just give her a break for one night without snarky comments?”

“I agree, I am surprised she let it happen though.” Brainy spoke up from his place on the floor leaning against Nia's legs.

Nia stroked his hair affectionately. “Don't worry Kara, We'll cheer her up, right Winn?”

“Absolutely. Now she's out of work, she's gonna have more time for call of duty.” He grinned until he saw J'onn's face. “Out of work hours obviously.”

“I like Lena, she has good taste in booze.” Maggie offered up to Kara's worried smile from her place on the floor next to Alex.

“Since when do you know about Luthor's taste in booze?” Alex frowned at her girlfriend.

Maggie shrugged. “I've spoken to her on official business at her office, she is a graceful host, I wasn't gonna turn it down.

“K Alex, can you be nice for once? I mean she isn't part of L-Corp anymore, she's just a regular person and this puts her miles away from her family right?”

“Oh Christ, here we go again, Kara just because she's been booted out of her company doesn't make a blind bit of difference. She is still a Luthor and while I am very grateful for any and all assistance she has given us, I don't trust her. Just be happy that I am making nice for the night OK?” Alex shook her head at the same argument over and over again.

James missed the tension between the sisters and unhelpfully offered his opinion. “Listen to your sister Kara, she knows what she's doing.”

“But don't you see? She wouldn't just let them kick her out, if she is out that means she wanted out which means she doesn't want anything to do with her family. If you could just...”

“No Kara. No. For the last time. No. You think she is this all amazing person that can mastermind her own firing from her own company but you wont see that the same mastermind could be playing the long con. We're not telling Lena about you and that's an order.”

Winn and Nia sat there agape. Brainy wasn't sure what the correct response was and he felt odd about hanging his jaw open so he said nothing. J'onn raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked to see how that would go down with Kara.

Maggie froze in place and whispered under her breath. “Uh oh.”

Before Kara could reply there was a knock at the door.

Maggie jumped up to get it and get out of any potential firing line. “Hey guys, Kara said you were back in National City for a while. Come on in.” She raised her eyebrows when she saw Lena. “Dressing down already Luthor.”

Lena walked in and the conversation stopped. Her usual perfectly straight hair was hanging down in it's natural curly state. Gone was the heavy power makeup, she was wearing a light lipstick and a light colour over her eyes. The corporate dress that she wore even outside of work was replaced with an oversized dark green sweater, a pair of black jeans, ripped at the knee and a pair of well worn pale green converse. “Whole new day Detective.”

Nia got up to hug her and offer her apologies for news. Winn shouted over about playing Call of Duty more often to keep her spirits up. Sam started chatting to everyone while Ruby made her way over to the food.

Kara just stood there. Mute.

Lena walked over to sit next to Nia on the couch, Sam moved over to sit in the corner next to her. Ruby sat on the kitchen stool, her teenage hormones alerting her to the incoming drama. She piled chips in to her mouth and sat back to watch it unfold.

Lena looked up to Kara standing in the middle of the floor still speechless and winked at her. Kara pulled herself together and sat back next to Alex with a very ungraceful flop.

“Right! Let's get this show on the road!” Winn called out as he pulled out a selection of games from his giant bag. “Who wants what?”

There was a chorus of rowdy responses around the room except from Kara who was just staring at Lena.

Lena was staring back at Kara wondering when she was going to speak. She tilted her head in question to the blonde.

Kara snatched her glasses off her face. “I'm Supergirl.” She said looking at Lena.

For a millisecond there was utter silence. Alex broke it first. “God damn it Kara, what the hell! We discussed this, you can not trust a...”

Sam broke in quickly. “A what Alex? A Luthor? Because you trusted her to help me and end the damage that none of you could.” She frowned at Alex.

“I know that Sam, I don't mean, I just mean.” Much to Maggie's amusement Alex seemed to be having trouble with her words.

“Hey, this isn't about you, this is between Alex and Kara.” James directed at Sam.

“Don't yell at my mom.” Ruby snapped at him.

“Ruby honey no one is yelling at your mom, you're too young to know what's going on yet.” Alex spoke firmly to Ruby.

“Hey now, she is plenty old enough to know what is going on.” Nia stood up to Alex.

“Jesus Kara do you have any idea what you just did.” James snapped at her. “I told you to listen to your sister.”

Sam rounded on James. “I thought this was between Alex and Kara, yet you seem mighty quick to jump in.”

Maggie looked over at J'onn to see what he thought about all this and was certain that he was hiding a smirk.”

In the shouting Lena beamed at Kara. “I have two pet squirrel monkeys.”

Kara gasped ignoring the chaos she had unleashed. “You do?” She yelled.

Lena nodded. “You wanna go meet them?”

“Yes!” Kara jumped up and held out her hand to Lena who took it and followed her to the door.

The yelling suddenly stopped and James called after them. “Where are you going?”

Kara smiled at him. “Squirrel monkeys!” And closed the door behind her.

****

Out on the street in front of Kara's apartment, Kara looked around for Lena's driver. She remembered that Lena probably no longer had access to the company drivers now. “How did you get here?”

Lena walked over to a small sporty convertible in dark green. “I even parked it myself.” She smiled as Kara jumped in without opening the door.

“I always wanted to do that!”

Lena laughed as she pulled away. “You can slide across the hood next time.”

“Is this electric?” Kara asked looking around.

Lena nodded as she pulled out. The traffic was light at this time of night it didn't take Lena long to reach the waterfront.

“Where are we going?” Kara asked quietly.

“You remember when I met you down here a couple of weeks ago with Sam? I told you I had something going on that I couldn't talk about yet. Well, this is what I have been up to.” She pressed a button on the front of the car and Kara saw movement up ahead in the corner warehouse as a door drew up to reveal an entryway.

Lena pulled up to the entry, pausing for Kara to read the small sign back lit with a single light.

“Kieran Solutions.” Kara spoke quietly. “Is this you?”

Lena nodded and drove into the building before cutting the engine. They got out of the car and Lena plugged it in before she guided Kara to the corner to stand next to her. She held her hand to the pad on the wall to start the small platform moving. Kara squeaked as they started slowly rising.

When they stepped off the platform, Kara looked around in awe. “Lena!” She whispered. “This is amazing. Is this what you've been working on?”

Lena nodded and walked to her main desk, grabbing a piece of fruit. She walked over to the tree in the middle and made some clicking noises. Kara squeaked again as a little furry body leapt out of nowhere into Lena's arms, grabbing the piece of fruit and nomming happily.

“Oh my gosh he's so cute!” Kara whispered loudly.

“This is Tashtego, he's slightly smaller. That one up there is Queequeg.”

Kara grinned up at the monkey. “Hi baby. You gonna come down?”

“He likes the figs.” Lena offered, pointing to an enormous fruit stash on her desk.

Kara took one of the figs and when the monkey didn't move Kara figured that she might as well go to him. She floated gently upwards so as not to startle him and held out the fig. Queequeg leaned forward to take it gently from her hands. Kara covered her mouth so as not to scream with an abundance of happy.

She floated down as Lena was putting Tashtego on the ground by the tree. He scrambled up the branches and sat next to his brother. “Why do you have squirrel monkeys?” She asked when she landed.

“Clerical error apparently. I ordered something with a similar code, they were going to take them back to the lab for resale and I knew if you ever found out you would never forgive me.” She laughed as Kara bumped her shoulder. “Anyway I thought I could just find them a home at a sanctuary but none of them take lab animals so I guess I need to find a monkey vet. Honestly Kara its been a really strange month.” She sighed.

“I guess I added to that. How long have you known?”

Lena blushed.

“I know you already figured it out. What gave me away?” Kara leaned against Lena's arm.

“Finger Guns.” Lena said with a straight face.

Kara laughed. “I swear I am not the only person that does that.”

“You kinda are.”

Kara sighed. “Are you mad at me?”

Lena wrapped her arms around herself, a sign that Kara knew meant she was feeling vulnerable. “I was, for a little while. Sam talked me down. And around. She said I should give you a little more time.”

“Lena I swear I have wanted to tell you for so long. Alex and James..” She sighed. “You know what, it isn't down to them, I should have just told you anyway. I'm sorry.”

Lena put her arms down. “Well, we're here now. That's all that matters.”

“Snapper is going to want me to interview you about L-Corp and all of this, whatever this is?” Kara looked around in wonder and walked back to Lena's desk area.

“Come by tomorrow, for an official interview. I'll tell you what really happened off the record then we can do an on the record interview if you like.”

“Can we grab lunch afterwards? Now that you are not running around like a crazy person with your nefarious plans.” Kara laughed.

“Absolutely. Interview then lunch, we can make an afternoon of it, make up for lost time.” Lena offered.

Kara smiled at her. “Then it's a date.”

Lena looked her in the eye and made sure she was paying attention. “Yes. It will be.”

Kara felt a blush run from her chest to her face. She walked over to Lena and pressed her lips against the smaller woman.

Lena moved her hands to Kara's face and deepened the kiss, running her hands through the blond hair, pulling it down from it's hair tie as Kara moved her hands to Lena's hips.

When they pulled apart, Kara smiled at her. “I have wanted to do that since the day I met you.”


	4. Army of Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just building things up, putting the pieces into play.

** Chapter 4 **

_ And if you complain once more  
You'll meet an army of me _

- _Bjork_

****

Lena looked up from her monitor when the buzzer for the front door sounded. She checked the screen with the door camera on it to see a smiling and waving Kara. She pushed the button to open the main door, standing up when Kara entered.

Feeling a little out of sync after her goodnight kiss from Kara last night, Lena didn't know what to do with her hands, before she had a chance to decide, Tashtego leapt onto her. She cuddled him to her hip and looked up at Kara.

“That is never going to get old!” Kara walked over holding her hand out for the monkey to investigate. “Hey baby.” She cooed.

“Hey yourself.” Lena replied smoothly causing a blush to run up Kara's face.

“Hi.” She moved over and pressed a kiss to Lena's cheek. “I get to do that now.” She looked panicked for a second. “I do get to do that now right?” She asked quickly.

Lena ducked her head and smiled. “Absolutely anytime you like.” She walked over to the desk and set the monkey down just as Queequeg came shuffling over to see what was going on. Lena picked him up, balancing him on her hip as she would a toddler.

“Oh my God you're like a natural monkey parent.” Kara gushed out.

Lena burst out laughing. “Smooth Kara, really smooth.” She sat at her desk and motioned for Kara to sit in the chair next to her. “Did Snapper send you over?”

Kara sighed picking up a fig in the hopes of persuading the monkey to come over. “Oh yeah, you should have seen him, practically salivating at the idea of getting the exclusive. I'm surprised your phone hasn't melted from all the press calls.”

Lena picked up the object in question. “Nope. I blocked all unknown numbers, had them sent to a message saying to contact Morgan Edge with any and all questions.” She laughed. “That should keep him busy. Nasty little man.” She casually handed some fruit to the monkey that had climbed on her shoulder. He took it and looked at Kara holding the fig in her hand that she had opened. He walked across the floor and climbed up her clothing. Kara forced herself to keep as still as she could. Queequeg sniffed the fruit and took it before curling up into her arm.

“I'm hugging a monkey!” She whispered to Lena.

“We're not going to get any of this interview done are we?” Lena smiled at the very excited blonde.

“No!” Kara whisper shouted again causing Lena to laugh.

Tashtego took that opportunity to run over and snatch the fruit from his brother causing both monkeys to screech and chase each other across the giant tree branches.

“No! Monkey come back!” Kara yelled after them.

Lena moved forward to pick a piece of strawberry from Kara's hair. “You have a little..” Lena showed her.

“Talking of hair.” Kara gestured to Lena's naturally curly hair. “Is this a new look?”

“You like it?” Lena bit her lip.

“Oh hell yes.” Kara replied enthusiastically before catching herself. “I mean it looks great straightened, but yeah, this works.” She squeaked.

“It's my natural style actually, I used to spend hours getting it straightened for work, to look the part of the CEO, but one day with these guys getting fruit in it every five minutes and I was done with the idea of wasting the time.”

Kara's stomach chose that minute to interrupt. She looked bashfully at Lena. “Sorry, I didn't get a chance to eat before Snapper was pushing me out the door.”

“I must admit, the first thing I thought when I realised you were Supergirl is that your appetite made so much more sense. It amazed me that you could stay that shape with the amount of food you ate. How much do you need to eat?” 

She walked over to the corner kitchenette area and pulled open the large freezer. She unwrapped a large pizza and put it in the oven. Kara walked over to see what she was doing.

“You have pizza in your freezer?”

Lena blushed. “Yeah, I figured it might be a good way to get you to visit.”

Kara opened the freezer and gasped. “You have so many pizzas! Are these all for me?”

“Well, hopefully not all at once, but, um, yes.”

Kara hugged her. “You didn't need to do that. I'm gonna be here all the time.” She stepped back and started playing with her glasses. “I mean not all the time, cause, I'm sure you have things to do, I just mean, probably lots. Definitely a lot. And not just cause of the pizza. And I'm shutting up now.” She giggled.

Lena tucked a lock of hair behind Kara's ear. “You're adorable.” She took her hand and led her back to the main area. “Let's get this interview done then we can grab some lunch.”

Kara pulled out her notepad out of habit and made herself comfortable.

“Do you actually need that?” Lena nodded to the notepad.

Kara shook her head. “No, but I try to use it to blend in you know? Muscle memory.” She opened a fresh page and started.

“So! Ms Luthor, firstly thank you for talking to me today, I understand that you wont be discussing anything with the press after this?”

Lena winked at her. “Lena. And no, this is the only interview I will be doing about my departure from L-Corp. Although I do hope you will come back when I have some new projects to announce.”

Kara blushed and nodded furiously.

They spent the next hour going over the official story about how Lena was voted out after Morgan Edge and others on the board wanted to take control of the company, feeling that Lena's direction toward the more mundane medical and climate related causes were not likely to be as profitable as weapons and war in the long term. She explained that her work with aliens had bothered some of the older members who felt a more insular approach would be better. She explained that she didn't try to persuade them otherwise as she was tired of fighting to keep L-Corp on a humanitarian course and fighting the board at every turn so she decided to strike out on her own to make the world a better place. She explained about her children's hospital and how she was concentrating on making it self funding, that she had bought the old YMCA hostels for parents to stay while visiting with their sick children. 

That was enough for Kara to fill in the editorial blanks and write a scathing article about L-Corp's priorities showing that they had learned nothing from what happened with Lex and that Lena was the only thing decent about the company that had outed her. 

Lena was satisfied that would be the final nail in the share prices and L-Corp or Luthor Corp would be useless to her mother for anything other than money laundering and making use of the labs until the lights were turned off.

Kara finished scribbling the last of her notes. She looked at Lena gently. “What really happened? How much of this did you arrange? I mean, you being voted out, did you do that? Is that what you and Sam were doing?” Kara finished the last of her now cold pizza as she waited for the full story.

“All of it. I wanted to burn it all to the ground honestly.” Lena sighed and for a moment Kara could see just how much L-Corp had weighed on Lena's shoulders in the way she no longer looked like she hadn't slept in days, or eaten in hours. 

“It was your fault actually.” She chuckled at Kara's surprise. “I figured out that you didn't tell me you were Supergirl because I was a Luthor.” She held her hand up as Kara made to interrupt. “I know it doesn't matter to you, but your people, they know what it means to be a Luthor, I know they don't want you around me. I knew I would never be good enough, no matter what I did and I had all these..” She paused and looked down at her shoes. “Pesky new feelings for my best friend. And I couldn't do anything about it until you could tell me you were Supergirl.”

Kara jumped up and hugged her. She squeaked when something landed on her tapping her head. “Hi monkey.” She scratched his chin. “Which one is this?”

“Queequeg, he gets jealous.”

“At least he likes me now.” Kara picked up some fruit and handed it to her new friend. “So how did you arrange all this? How did you know Morgan Edge would do it?”

“He's isn't subtle, he's been trying to buy more shares for months. While he was so busy scraping up the shares that Sam was selling, I bought up the riverside property that he was busy pushing down in value so he could buy it for pennies for his new real estate project. I don't think he knows that yet though.” She looked thoughtful. “Not that it matters, with Luthor share prices as they are, I doubt he can afford it. Anyway, I was using a broker that my Mother uses to make sure she would take over as CEO. I knew she would be planning to take over but assumed I would stay on. Then I had Jess release a press statement at the time of the meeting to say that the connection between Cadmus and Lillian Luthor would likely affect share prices now that I was out of the picture. That's all it took to crash the company. I don't like to sound too arrogant, but I think I was a big reason the share prices stayed up, because I was a reliable Luthor, not one of the crazy ones.” She laughed with a self deprecating air.

Kara put the monkey down, amused when he climbed straight back up as she hugged Lena again. “You are the only Luthor worth a damn.” She laughed into Lena's neck. “So you did all that so you could date Supergirl?”

Lena smiled at her. “I did all that so I could date Kara Danvers.” Lena kissed her on the cheek, took the monkey and put him on his tree perch. “C'mon, lets go get lunch, I doubt a single pizza is enough for you.”

Kara grabbed her purse and followed her to her car.

****

They sat outside a downtown steakhouse not far from L-Corp. Figuring most of the press would be camped outside the building trying to get any information from the beleaguered company and not looking for a casually dressed Lena wearing a battered brown leather jacket and combat boots. 

Lena ordered a chicken salad, Kara ordered enough food to feed an army. “Honestly this makes so much more sense now.” Lena shook her head. “Seriously, how do you afford all this on your salary? I suppose the second income from the DEO helps.”

Kara scoffed. “Second income. They don't pay me.” She shrugged.

Lena was horrified. “Are you kidding me? All those times you bailed on me for family emergencies or work emergencies, those were all..” She looked around. “You know, those kind of emergencies?”

Kara nodded.

“And the patrolling at night? All those alien death matches and you don't earn anything from them?” Lena clearly thought this was outrageous.

“Thing is, I don't work for them officially, no contract and all that. If I signed on with them properly, I think I would, but Kal, my cousin, he doesn't trust them and I get why, but I get to help more people this way. Maybe when I am more established I can do my own thing, but they pay for any damage I cause, and I can be a bit clumsy.” She looked up happy that her food was arriving.

When there was no space left on the table Lena asked her again. “So I'm guessing most of your salary goes on food? How many calories do you eat a day?”

“No idea honestly, but yeah, i have crazy grocery bills. Well, take out bills, I don't cook. But people are really nice to Supergirl and I get food when I help people, which is really cool.”

Lena thought it was so very Kara that she thought one of the best parts of being a superhero was free food.

“So you said that you bought your office out from under Morgan Edge. Is that going to stop him from buying the rest of it?”

“Oh I bought all of it.” Lena offered casually.

Kara froze. “All of what?”

“The property down by the water. That's where those hostels are, just over from my office. I bought the buildings down the side as well. I'm going to lease them to start up companies. And perhaps a take out place.” She winked at Kara.

“Jesus Lena, you own all the property down there? Wow, I was gonna offer to go halfsies on the bill but you know what, I think you can pay for it.”

Lena laughed and grabbed the bill when the waitress left it for them.

When the food was done, Lena stood up and offered her hand to Kara. “Can I walk you back to work?” 

Kara nodded and took her hand. “This is nice.” She spoke quietly looking at their joined hands.

Lena's smile lit up the street and Kara was once again struck by how beautiful she was. They parted ways at Catco. Lena awkwardly tried to hug her as Kara moved in to kiss her on the cheek. They laughed at the silliness of it before Kara suggested they try that again. Lena put her hands on Kara's waist and proceeded to kiss her passionately in the middle of the sidewalk.

A breathless Kara looked up with a goofy smile. “Almost, we should try that again.” She pulled Lena in and kissed her until people were bumping into them. Kara pulled back and played with her glasses. “Can I call you later?”

Lena nodded enthusiastically. 

“Actually, seeing as you don't work 24 hours a day, if I can get Friday off patrolling, would you like to go to the movies. Like, a date.” She added quickly.

Lena laughed. “You just kissed my socks off in front of your work, I don't think the date part needs clarifying.”

Kara walked away looking over her shoulder as Lena watched her go. When Kara was safely in the building, Lena went back to her car to get some errands run.

****

By the time Lena was finished with her various shopping trips she headed back to her office to drop it off and maybe watch the monkeys play with the obscene amount of toys she had picked up for them. It was almost dark as she drove down the small road that led to her office, pondering an idea of how to help Kara with her food intake when out of nowhere a body rolled across the hood of her car. She slammed the brakes on and jumped out of the car. 

There was a body laying in the road not moving, she leaned down to check if he was OK, she reached for her phone with one hand and his pulse with the other. The body in the road suddenly lunged up at her knocking the phone away. Despite the shock, Lena jumped away from him as he tried to grab her. He reached for her again as she brought her knee up violently into his groin. There was a high pitched scream as she made contact and followed it up by punching him on the back of the head putting him down. 

She staggered back breathing hard when she felt the arms grab her from behind. She kicked backwards yelling various insults at her attacker. She heard the screech of tires as a black van stopped behind her, sliding the door open to reveal more men dressed in black with their faces covered. She was about to scream one last time when she felt a jolt of electricity and everything went black.

****

Pain. A dull throbbing pain that rolled across her entire body was the first thing she was aware of. She heard someone calling her name and sirens in the distance.

“Can you hear me? Lena? Can you open your eyes for me baby?”

She would know that voice anywhere. She cracked open her eyes, squinting as the streetlights hit her eyes. “You called me baby?” She smiled goofilly up at Supergirl.

Kara sighed in relief. “Are you OK? What happened?”

Lena sat up with a groan. She looked around the area to find at least 4 of the goons from the van lying around on the ground in various states of bleeding. All of them very still. She tried to remember what had happened but couldn't get past men rolling out of the side door of the van. She looked over Kara's shoulders and caught several men backing into one of the empty buildings she had recently bought. 

Alex pulled up, her siren still flashing, Lena squinted at the glare. Kara stood in front of her blocking it out when she saw that it was bothering her. “I think you hit your head. Does it hurt?” She asked, clearly worried.

Alex came over and looked around at the bodies scattered around as her team checked them for damage before zip tying them and putting them in the back of the various agents cars. She crouched down next to Lena and motioned one of the agents to bring her medical kit over. “What happened? Did you knock them all out?”

Lena shook her head. “I, um, I don't know. I hit someone with my car. Or at least I thought I did. I went to see if he was OK and he attacked me. Then someone grabbed me and, um, there was a van, a black van, there were more of them. I knocked one of them out then there was this searing pain in my back, like I think maybe they tasered me?” 

Alex checked her eyes with a light and had her follow some basic commands. “Can you lean over, let me check your back?” She lifted Lena's jacket and shirt up and tsked when she saw the two burn marks. “If it makes you feel better, they hit you with a pretty big jolt, clearly they figured you weren't going quietly. You also have a mild concussion. Do you have someone that can keep you awake for a few hours?”

Alex wasn't remotely happy or surprised when Kara jumped in the conversation. “I'll stay with her.”

“Do you know who did, well, what ever happened to those guys?” Alex asked her.

Lena thought back to the shadowy figures moving into her property. If they did what she thought, she wasn't going to make trouble for them. She shook her head in apology.

“Alright, well Supergirl can take care of you, I'm gonna get this lot down to Maggie to get them booked in. “ She looked at Kara. “Check in with me tomorrow OK?”

Kara nodded and waited for all the DEO vehicles to pull out. Lena stumbled to her feet and walked to the car.

“What do you think you're doing?” Kara asked.

“I imagine you wont let me drive home and I need to get this put away and the door closed. Don't want the furry double act loose in National City.”

Kara perked up at the mention of the monkeys. “Here, I'll put the car in, you go check inside.”

With the car in place and the door closed, Lena did a quick check of the monkeys and put away some of the stuff she had picked up. As she was starting to stagger on her feet Kara called a stop to it.

“C'mon, let's get you home before you have any bright ideas about staying and working. I thought you were gonna stop those bad habits?”

Lena smiled and let Kara lead her outside. “You ready?” Kara asked picking Lena up.

Lena took advantage of her current position and did what he had wanted to do for months. Kissing Kara was her new favourite thing to do and it took a moment before she realized what had happened. 

“You're floating.”

Kara opened her eyes and looked around bashfully. “You're a good kisser. I get kinda distracted” She replied simply.

“Well, the feeling is mutual, however we should probably put that on hold until we are on the ground.” She looked around the building and remembered what she had meant to have Kara do earlier. “Wait, can you take us to the side of the office, up there by the little ledge standing out.”

Kara floated them up, holding onto Lena as they stood precariously on the ledge. Lena pressed her hand against the bio lock. She pressed some buttons on her phone and on the lock. “Here, put your hand on the pad.” She directed her.

The lock scanned Kara's hand then flashed green. “There. You can now open this door when you fly in as Supergirl and the one downstairs when you are Kara.”

Kara grinned. “That's so cool, you made me a landing pad!” She picked Lena up again and drifted upwards moving her toward home.

“You're the only one.” Lena whispered knowing that Kara would here her.

“The only one what?” Kara stopped flying, hovering them gently over the city.

“With access. I trust you. You can come and go as you like. 24 hour monkey access.” She smiled.

Kara kissed her again, briefly making Lena forget that they were in the middle of the sky. “You're the best girlfriend ever.”

Lena felt like she could fly home without assistance after that. If not for the pounding in her skull.

****

They landed on Lena's balcony shortly. Kara directed Lena to sit down while she got them a drink. Lena watched Kara waiting for the kettle to boil, smiling as Kara was shuffling from foot to foot as though dancing to a song in her head. She leaned her head back on the couch to alleviate some of the pain in her neck pondering who might be trying to kill her now. It was doubtful that it had anything to do with Morgan Edge. He had far too much on his plate to bother with revenge currently. That would no doubt come later. She had humiliated him, rendered his shares worthless and bought his project out from under him. No doubt he would pop up at some point. But this was too professional, clearly it wasn't meant to kill her, so that ruled out Lex. Clearly she was wanted alive. And that only left one real option.

“You think it was Lillian?” Kara walked over with two mugs and sat down next to her.

“Can you read minds?” Lena smirked.

Kara shrugged. “Edge isn't in a position to hire people to kidnap you, and honestly what would he do with you when he got you? Lex seems to want you dead in the easiest way possible. The only one I can think of that would want you alive and incapacitated would be Lillian.”

“So no to the mind reading then?”

“Nope, I leave that up to J'onn. Why is Lillian trying to kidnap you? 

Lena started playing with her nails, a sign of nerves that Kara knew well. “I took a lot of the stuff that L-Corp had in the labs. Alien tech, minerals, anything of any use to Cadmus. I took it off the company inventory, no one knows it's there. Lillian knows it's there.”

Kara sipped her tea quietly. “Do you have Kryptonite?” She whispered.

Lena looked down giving Kara her answer.

“I don't want you to have that.” Kara's voice cracked.

Lena took a deep breath, fighting against the pain in her head. “You know, if you are bitten by a snake, it can kill you if you don't get the antivenom?” She waited for Kara to nod. “The antivenom comes from the very bite that can kill you. Kryptonite I believe to be the same. The only thing that can kill you, I believe, is the only thing that can protect you from it. Kryptonite is all over our planet now. It's never going to go away no matter how much you and Superman try to gather it up and destroy it. I don't want to take the chance when it comes to you that someone might get to it first. Kara I wont lie to you, I don't trust the DEO with Kryptonite.”

Kara sighed. “Neither does Kal. He says that they will always have it just in case they need or want to get rid of us. It's one of the reasons he wont work with them.”

“I cant tell you to trust me blindly, but I swear to you, I will never willingly hurt you. Even if this, between us, doesn't last, you will always be my best friend. You were the first person to stand up for me, I could never, never betray you. I cant imagine a world that doesn't have Kara Danvers in it.” She pulled Kara toward her, pressing their foreheads together as though willing Kara to read her deepest thoughts and fears and showing just how much Kara meant to her. She felt the moisture falling down her face. “You mean everything to me, I could never hurt you.”

Kara held her in place as though she knew how much Lena needed her to know, she felt Lena's tears on her face and moved her thumbs to wipe them away. She pulled Lena into her Lap, tucking her head under her chin. “I trust you, I know you wont hurt me. Sleep now, I've got you.” She continued to make calming nonsensical sounds until Lena fell asleep. She stayed awake vowing to protect Lena from her family and anyone else foolish enough to get between them.

****

Lena had woken up in her bed, tucked carefully under her sheets, the first thing she noticed when she opened her eyes was a note from Kara on the pillow next to her. _'had to sort out a few things before work. C U L8R'_ and a string of hand drawn emojis because no message from Kara would be complete without them. She pulled the note to her face and smiled.

She called a Lyft driver to drop her off at her office at 7am. Stopping at the nearest Starbucks Lena picked up a dozen coffees and twice as many bagels. She walked past her door and around to the waterfront to the row of properties she had recently bought. Pausing at the first one, she opened the door and stepped gently into the chaos of a mid renovation.

“Good morning!” She called out cheerily. A somewhat meek looking Ozzy came out from one of the rooms. If you can call a 6ft plus 200lb homeless man meek.

“I brought gifts.” She smiled at him holding up the coffee and bagels. He checked back into the room, presumably to make sure everyone was dressed. He waved her in after him.

She walked in surprised to find four of them sitting in various states of dress or sleeping bags on the floor. There was nowhere to really sit and she didn't want to make them feel less than so she dropped herself to the floor cross legged and handed out the coffee and bagels. “I wasn't sure how many of you there were so I might have over bought.” 

“No such thing as too much coffee.” Tucker raised his cup to her. “Certainly no such thing as too much food.”

“You would get on well with my girlfriend.” Lena found herself grinning almost maniacally as she said the word girlfriend. “So I believe introductions are in order?”

Tucker swallowed his food. “Well, you've met me and Ozzy.” The man in question grinned at her and Lena found herself unable to keep from grinning back. “This is Twofer.” He pointed at the Black man to his side. “He's Black and gay so we got two for one on insults.” 

The others laughed, Ozzy clapped briefly startling Lena and Twofer shrugged. “The shit I put up with for my country.”

Tucker pointed to the smallest of the group. “This here is Gunner.” The small man with dirty blonde hair lifted his hand in acknowledgement. 

“Because you are a gunner?” Lena asked innocently.

“Nah, cause I'm small enough to fit in the submarine firing tubes.” He answered with a sweet southern drawl totally at odds with his appearance.

“So you all served together?” Lena picked apart a bagel.

Twofer answered her first. “We signed in together, lived through BUDS together, signed out together after our crew was ambushed and Ozzy lost his box. We all took fire or shrapnel. Uncle Sam doesn't keep you on after that. Sends you home with a bunch of shiny medals so you can watch him kick your ass to the curb.”

“Your ex Seals? Lena asked in surprise.

“No such thing as an ex Seal ma'am.” Twofer said solemnly.

“So what brings you here Lena?” Tucker asked, reaching for another coffee.

She sat up straight. “I thought it might be good manners to come and say thank you.”

The men looked at each other and to Lena's surprise began talking to each other in sign language. “Wanna tell me why a nice lady like you has a bunch of army boys in pretty Kevlar trying to shove you in the back of a van?” Tucker asked her bluntly.

Lena smiled. “I never did introduce myself properly. My name is Lena Luthor.”

Tucker choked on his bagel and Ozzy started clapping which she figured out was his way of laughing. Gunner just looked at her and Twofer summed it up perfectly. “Oh you're fucked.”

It was a better reception that she could have hoped for. She explained what she was doing in renovating the front properties and the plans she had for the hostel. She left out some information about what she might be hiding in her vault. But she told them about working with Supergirl and her tenuous relationship with a government agency to explain what happened when they left last night.

After she finished she offered them a proposition. “Have you done any private security work?”

“Does last night count if you paid us in coffee?” Gunner quipped.

“Well, you did do a very good job. Are you all licensed to carry?” They all nodded at her. “Come and work for me. I wont lie, people do like to try and kill me, but if you do have to kill them they are all very bad people.” She deadpanned. “Mostly simple security, an armed presence will make most people think twice and I do want my hostel protected, those people will be going through enough without my mothers idiots causing trouble. You can stay here until you find somewhere that suits you better, or if you want to stay together, you can stay here. The hostel is finished and empty so you can stay there until this place is finished. 

She sat back with her second coffee as they spoke in sign between them. Once a consensus was reached Tucker spoke to her directly. “You got yourself a small army Lena Luthor.” He grinned at her.

She matched his ferocity knowing how this was going to piss off everyone except Kara who would be happy for Lena to have as much protection as possible. She stood up to go and pulled out a credit card from her wallet. “This should get you kitted out a bit to start. Get something suitable for scaring any trouble makers and something casual, whatever you need to start fresh OK?” She handed it to Ozzy as he was leading her to the door. He was clearly emotional about it, waving his hands around in front of her. She looked to the others for a translation. 

“He says thank you for trusting us.” Gunner offered quietly.

Lena smiled. “Thank you for saving my ass. Come over to my office tomorrow morning and we'll get things squared off with my accountant.” She pulled off a key from her chain. “This will get you into the hostel, get a copy for each of you. Welcome to Keiran Solutions gentleman.”


	5. Paint a Rumour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No offence intended toward Asexuals, just having a little fun with words

** Paint a Rumour **

_ I could tell you something   
(Promise not to tell) _

- _A Lennox, D Stuart_

****

The door chimed making Lena look up from her work at the microscope. She let out a grunt of annoyance when she saw Alex standing there looking irritable. Lena felt that irritable was a permanent state when it came to Alex but she looked more irritable than normal. She hadn't seen Kara's sister in about ten days since the attempted kidnapping. She'd had lunch with Maggie a few days ago who let her know that the four guys they had arrested in connection with it were bailed out by the same lawyer as last time and had disappeared off the map. Maggie told her that Alex wanted to just hold the next lot at the DEO for interrogating. Lena laughed and asked if that meant Alex would beat the crap out of them until they talked. Maggie said it was likely but at least Alex could work out some of her irritation.

Unfortunately for Lena the irritation was clearly still in play as she buzzed Alex into the building.

“I brought some papers for you to sign. Why are there armed men wandering around outside?”

“Hi Alex, I'm well, thank you.”

Alex glared at her. “I already had Sam sign a set after Kara did her big reveal, but imagine my surprise that she already knew before that? Do you understand what secret identity means?” She snapped.

Lena flipped through the papers, scanning for buzzwords. “It was extenuating circumstances. I was very unhappy to find that despite my constant availability and assistance to the DEO I wasn't considered trustworthy on account of my families behaviour. My family that I have personally stifled at every opportunity. Besides, I was trying to figure out how to shoot Kara and get her shirt off and I needed advice.” She put her initials in a few places waiting for the explosion behind her.

“Oh that makes it perfectly OK then? Can you try not to let anyone else know?” Alex asked her sarcastically.

“Apart from Sam, I haven't told a soul, neither do I intend to.”

“Thank you.” Alex offered begrudgingly.

“However you will need a few more of these, my security people took one look at Kara as my girlfriend and Supergirl and figured it out within seconds.”

“For fucks sake. This, this is why I didn't want you to know!” Alex slammed her pen down.

“You didn't want me to know because I'm a Luthor, let's not insult each others intelligence. I cant be held responsible for the worst disguise in human history. I can however improve on it.”

Alex stopped pacing. “What does that mean?”

Lena signed the forms with a flourish ignoring Alex waiting for an answer. “Was there anything else you needed?”

“Yes actually. I want what you took from Luthor Corp before you left.” She folded her arms out and looked smugly at Lena.

“No.” Lena sat down and looked at her placidly.

Alex huffed. “At least you don't deny having it.”

“You can take me for a fool all you want, I wont extend that to you. What I may or may not have taken from **L-Corp** , stays with me, far away from the government.” She added emphasis on the L-corp. “I don't trust government agencies, I wont have anything that can hurt Kara anywhere near them.”

Alex was livid. “You don't get to make that decision and please explain to me why a Luthor can be trusted instead?”

Lena crossed her feet over, remaining casual in her response. “I do get to make that decision because you have no idea what I took or didn't take from L-Corp which means you can kiss a search warrant goodbye and without a complaint from the current board of L-Corp detailing what they feel was taken illegally, which you wont get because everything on the company inventory is there and accounted for.”

“You really don't want to do this Lena. Private citizens have no business holding alien weaponry and whatever else you have. Do you have Kryptonite? Does Kara know you have it?” She laid down her ace, further annoyed when Lena smugly nodded. “How dare you assume I would let Kara get hurt? My only responsibility is to keep her safe.” Alex finished her tirade.

Lena could practically see the steam coming out of Alex's ears. She sighed. “People can be replaced. Missions can be overridden, alliances can be broken. All it requires is for Lex to have one of his people put in place and there would be nothing you could do to protect her.”

Alex scoffed. “Lex is in Maximum security. He isn't even a threat to the cooks there.”

Lena burst out laughing. “Alex, do me a favour. Take a trip out to Strikers. Ask to see Lex's cell, have the governor move him out of the room them go take a look at it.”

Alex tilted her head. “Why, what does he have?”

Lena shrugged. “No idea, I haven't been to visit. But I would put good money that it doesn't look like you imagine a maximum secure prisoner would be living. Go take a look, and then come back to see me and we can re-discuss my government conspiracies.” 

There was a beeping sound from above, Alex turned to see Supergirl walk into the lab. 

“Alex! What brings you over here?” She smiled brightly. She walked down the stairs to the main floor kissed Lena gently before walking directly to the kitchen and putting a pizza in the oven.

Lena smirked at Alex who was clenching her teeth so tightly she didn't think they could be opened with the jaws of life.

“Oh just picking up paperwork after you outed yourself the other night.” Alex said sarcastically.

“Cool. Oh, you need to get a few more, Lena's guys recognised me. Have you met them? They are so cool. We had an eating competition and I totally won!” She kissed Lena again. “Thanks for getting more pizza. Sorry we ate it all.”

“You don't look remotely sorry, but here, try this.” Lena grabbed a plastic container and offered it to Kara.

“What's this?” Kara leaned in and sniffed at what looked like large fruit bars. 

“Try it.” Lena prodded her.

Kara took a corner bite already screwing her face up in disgust. She chewed for a bit and smiled. “Those are really good, what are they?” She carried on eating it.

“A happy accident. I was harvesting my cannabis plants and...”

“Cannabis plants?” Alex interrupted.

“Yes, I've been growing various strains trying to find one that takes away the compulsion to eat.”

“Didn't work.” Kara giggled. “I found her and Sam whacked out of their gourd 7 bags of Doritos down arguing over a bag of Twizzlers.”

“Anyway!” Lena interrupted. “Some of the other batch had a curious chemical reaction. Those bars are about 2000 calories each.

Kara stopped mid chew. “Really?” She looked at the innocuous bars. “You made these for me?” She looked at Lena as though she hung the stars.

Alex looked at Kara with curiosity.

“Well I certainly daren't eat them darling. I thought it might cut your food bills down a bit. I have the same batch of cannabis growing again so I should be able to keep a steady supply for you.” Lena smiled.

Kara pulled her in and kissed her passionately forgetting that Alex was in the room. She also forgot that the monkeys were in the room as one of them dropped out of nowhere and grabbed her Superbar(patent pending). 

“Hey! Monkey! C'mere!” Kara chased the monkeys around the tree leaving Alex and Lena to finish a conversation.

“So about all that stuff you took from Luthor Corp.” Alex crossed her arms.

Lena decided that she'd had enough. “You have **no** idea what it means to have wealth and power. The sins that are overlooked when you all share the same dirty little secrets. The government is not infallible Agent Danvers.”

Alex gave her a look of disgust. “Bragging Lena? Really?”

“I'm not bragging, I'm teaching and it seems you don't understand the lesson. So let's see if you can figure it out yourself. Go and visit Lex, if he is living in a shoe box living on processed food, come back and talk to me and we can revisit me giving you what I may or may not have taken. For now, I'm done talking about it.”

Alex walked out in annoyance. She stood outside to take a deep breath and pulled out her phone. “Put me through to the governor please. Agent Alex Danvers, DEO.”

Kara landed triumphantly with her Superbar(patent pending). “Do you have plans for tonight?” She asked Lena.

“I don't, I was actually going to ask if you would like to come over for dinner.”

“You going to cook for me?” Kara took Lena in her arms and danced them around to music that only seemed to ever play in Kara's head.

“I can handle my way around a kitchen, will you come?” She stood up on her toes to place a kiss to Kara's lips.

Kara beamed at her. She was about to say something more when her head tilted as though she was listening. “Shoot, I gotta go. What time?”

“Come here when you are done for the day, I'll drive us over.”

Kara nodded before flying to her own personal exit and flying off in a blur.

Lena sat down, immediately swamped by a pair of bored monkeys. She handed over some building blocks and started playing as she had her computer make a call. “Congressman Ingles please. It's Lena Luthor.”

****

Sam came in with Ruby later in the afternoon, loaded down with grocery bags she walked directly to the kitchen while Ruby grabbed some fruit and went to the tree.

“I agreed to run your hospital, not your errands.” Sam complained as she walked back. “What's the big deal?”

Lena sat back from her computer rubbing her eyes. “You are dearly appreciated. I have Kara coming over for dinner tonight.”

Sam raised her eyebrows. “What is this? Date five?”

“Technically seven. I'm hoping things will.” She paused looking to make sure Ruby was distracted. “Progress naturally, if you will.”

Sam looked blank. “You mean you haven't? She made some complicated hand gestures around her body. “You know?”

Lena sighed. “Kara is very sweet, very respectful. We've kissed, a lot. Very much a lot. And she is very affectionate. But no. We haven't...” Lena attempted to replicate Sam's hand movements. “You know?”

“Oh. Well, I mean, that is very respectful. Very, gentlemanly. So to speak.”

Lena checked Ruby again. “Yes, but I am way past respectful and honestly every time she flexes in that damn suit I want her to throw me over the desk until I forget my name. I spoke to Maggie the other day. I tried to delicately ask if this was a Danvers thing. Apparently not. According to Maggie she forgot her name after the second date.”

Sam laughed. “Have you considered that Kara might be asexual?”

Lena looked horrified, like the world couldn't be that cruel.

“It's a perfectly valid life choice.” Sam added.

“I know.” Lena snapped. “I mean, of course it is. Oh God do you think she is?”

Sam laughed again. “I think you need to have a chat over dinner.”

The door buzzed and Lena looked to the camera to see Ozzy standing there waving at her. She buzzed him in and to Sam's surprise Lena was tentatively signing with him. He grinned at her, clapping at certain points where Lena had apparently used the wrong gesture. Lena led him over to one of the back rooms that she had set up as a training room. Never one to do things by halves, Lena was apparently taking fighting lessons from Navy Seals. Ozzy started typing in his phone for speed. Lena was always surprised when she saw either of the four of them now. Clean, shaven, crew cut hair, they were quite the appearance around the waterfront. Her phone beeped and she looked at it.

“ _Is that Sam's daughter? Is the father in the picture? No ring?”_

Lena smirked at him. She lowered her voice. “Just the two of them. Might I ask why?”

He winked at her and walked over to Ruby playing with the monkeys. He handed over his phone and indicated that she put her phone number in. She handed the phone back and Lena watched him texting, his fingers flying over the keys.

Ruby's phone beeped and she looked down, after a minute she started laughing and smiled at Ozzy.

“Mom, Ozzy want's to know if I think it would be really funny if you went on a date with someone that had no way to tell you how pretty you were and couldn't interrupt you or judge you for ordering dessert and too much wine.” Ruby called over.

Lena laughed. Credit where credit was due, the man had game.

Sam blushed as Ruby's phone beeped again. “He is asking me if you are free tomorrow night and if he could take you out for a really funny date?”

Obviously Sam was as impressed with Ozzy's game. She typed out a message and Ruby's phone beeped again. “My mom says I should tell my new friend he should pick her up tomorrow at 7.30 and she will be ordering two desserts.” Ruby grinned.

Ozzy clapped and grinned as he walked back out the door. He signed something else as he walked out.

“What did he say?” Sam asked curiously.

“He says you really are very pretty.” Lena smiled as Sam turned as red as the apples on her desk.

“Right! Well I have some things to do because I certainly don't intend to wait for seven dates. Talk to Kara!” She pointed at Lena as she guided Ruby out the door. “And don't do anything to piss off Alex in the next 24 hours, I need a baby sitter.” 

Lena grimaced as she left knowing was was going to happen tomorrow and hoping it didn't screw up Sam's evening.

****

Alex pulled up at Strykers Island. The Governor had told her to come in at 3pm and they would arrange to clear the entire wing out so as not to raise suspicion. She shook his hand when she arrived looking to get the measure of the man. He seemed straight up and by the book, Alex was starting to feel foolish for letting Lena sucker her into coming. Tempted as she was to turn around she figured she was here now and it never hurt to keep tabs on people that wanted her family harmed. As they got closer to Lex's wing the Governor started to get squirmy. Like he suddenly felt awkward in his own skin.

“Problem?” Alex asked bluntly. 

“While I am in charge and responsible for the welfare of all the men under my roof, I have to answer to people higher than myself. People that for reasons I do not comprehend feel obligated to entertain the whims of a madman.” He spat out curtly.

They had arrived at Lex's cell, the Governor looked back to the man at the gate entrance and nodded for the cell to be opened.

Alex stood back in shock. Where she expected a small dull room with a single metal bed or bunk beds, perhaps a sink or a toilet, some personal effects, a small barred window, there stood what looked to be an advert for the Ritz. The room was huge with windows overlooking the fields behind the facility. There was a large bed in the middle of the room, an expensive looking desk with a top of the line laptop and a fridge in the corner. She looked around the walls to find blueprints to God alone knew what taped up leaving next to none of the walls blank. The windows had bars along with curtains.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She yelled at the Governor.

“We all follow orders that come down the line.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

“Yeah? And what's your cut for this?” She demanded, surprised when he turned on her furiously.

“Not a God damn penny. I take orders Agent and I have been assured that if I am unable to, there are other places that I can move to and be easily replaced by someone more accommodating.”

Alex shook her head in horror. “This is insane? Who's allowing this? 31 life sentences and he lives better than I do!” She yelled. “Does he have internet access?” 

The Governor shook his head. “We disconnected the WiFi. I had it on a 24 hour password rotation, when that wasn't enough, I swapped it to hourly and still the son of a bitch bought access. I turned it off but I know he gets phones snuck into him. I used to turn his cell over weekly but I was ordered to stop. So does he have access? Probably and there isn't a God damn thing I can do about it. They might as well just fucking release him.” He spat out angrily. “Pardon my language.” He offered as an afterthought.

Alex waved it off. “I've seen enough. I need to get out of here.”

They left silently.

****

Kara arrived at Lena's office at 6 intent on making her leave straight away. After playing with Tashtego and Queequeg.

She let herself in using the downstairs pad waving at Lena's personal army standing around near the hostel. She knew Alex was pissed that Lena had hired security but personally she was thrilled that Lena was taking her safety seriously. She wasn't so thrilled to find out that Lena was training with them but then again, no one could be around her twenty fours a day so at least she could look after herself. Even if the Seals tended to train with the idea that the sooner someone was dead, the less damage they could do.

Lena was sat at a bench upstairs with a pair of industrial goggles on welding something under a microscope. An impressive feat if ever there was one. She saw Kara and grabbed the goggles off her head and started down the stairs.

Kara had always thought Lena was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. But since she had left L-Corp and dressed casually all the time Kara found it hard not to just stare at her. Lena could make the most mundane clothing look like a fashion magazine shoot. She was wearing light blue jeans with a chequed red flannel shirt open to reveal a white t-shirt and those old half laced combat boots she had taken to wearing in her lab as apparently they had steel toes to protect her feet. Kara snapped her mouth closed and surreptitiously checked her chin for drool.

“I have something for you.” Lena ran up to her and hugged her quickly.

“Ooh, I like things.” Kara mentally slapped herself for turning into an intellectual amoeba when she spoke to Lena.

“It's not finished, but I finally cracked the sequence and I wanted to give you a sneak peak.” She pulled out a blocky kind of chain and wrapped it around Kara's wrist. “K, let me just...” She pressed a few keys on her tablet. “When it's done, you'll be able to make it work by pressing your thumb to a pad on it. K, done!”

Kara watched in amazement as the bracelet became fluid and spread up her arm to her elbow, covering her hand before settling into a solid lightweight looking fabric. She moved her fingers, it was just like wearing a glove.

“I'm programming the rest of them so it makes a full suit. Complete with all perks, fire resistant, cold resistant, waterproof, explosion proof and of course a colour.” Lena grinned clearly very pleased with herself.

“That's incredible! So rather than wearing my suit around I can just call it up at the press of a button?”

Lena nodded happily. “I hope to have it finished shortly. Once the prototype is done, I can upgrade it. I had a few thoughts for reflectors that give the illusion of invisibility.” She pressed some more keys and the glove became fluid running down to her wrist and forming the solid chain again.

“Nanobots?” Kara asked.

Lena nodded. “I've been looking at it for about a year, when I first met Supergirl. I finally had time to start perfecting it. Do you like it?” She asked with excitement.

“Are you kidding? I love it, it's incredible, you're incredible!” Kara picked her up and swung her around.

Lena laughed as Kara set her down. “One last thing, check this out.” She walked to the tree and called the monkeys by name.

“They come to their names?” Kara gasped.

“Better than that.” Lena sat down and grabbed some of the letter blocks scattered at the base of the tree. She whispered to one of them and he scrambled around the blocks until he found one and brought it back. She whispered to the other who brought another one back. She did this twice more praising them both profusely and handing over some peanuts from her pocket.

Kara covered her mouth. “Oh Rao, that's amazing. You taught them to do that?” She took out her phone to snap a photo of them including the letter blocks.

** L E N O **

“Obviously we have a few kinks to work out.” Lena laughed. “They get a little excitable toward the end and just think about peanuts.”

Kara giggled and pulled her to her feet. “Time to go Ms Luthor.”

Lena grabbed her groceries from the fridge, loaded up the car and took them toward her apartment.

****

What Lena lacked in culinary imagination, she made up for in quantity and quality Kara decided. She was plowing through 6 sausages and an obscene amount of mashed potato, the entire thing covered in gravy, deliberately pushing the single piece of broccoli as far away as possible.

Lena's was significantly smaller with most of the broccoli on her own plate. When they finished she pulled out a chocolate cheesecake, made a small slice for herself and handed the remainder to Kara along with a fork.

She sipped her wine waiting for Kara to finish demolishing the cheesecake and decided the best way to get Kara to open up was when she was relaxed and based on the very fine impression that Kara was doing of a chipmunk she seemed as relaxed as Lena was likely to get her.

“Are you Asexual?”

Kara tilted her head in question. “A sexual what?”

Lena squinted wondering if she was joking. “No, I mean Asexual. As orientation?”

When Kara continues to look blank, Lena sighed. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual.”

Kara stared off into space and Lena could place the exact moment that it hit home. “Is that what the A stands for? I thought it meant ally. What does being Asexual mean? Do you like, only sleep with A's?”

This was really not going as planned. “Asexual, which is a perfectly valid orientation.” Lena started.

“Absolutely!” Kara agreed, despite having no idea what it meant.

“Asexual people are not attracted to anyone sexually. They might form romantic associations, but they don't tend to have sexual attraction.” She took a deep breath and hurried on. “Which, again, perfectly valid.”

“Right, totally valid.” Kara agreed. “But, um, no, I totally have sexual attraction. To loads of people.”

Lena glared at her.

“I mean, not loads!” She scoffed. “Like, maybe one. You know. Just...” She mumbled off.

Lena decided to skip that argument to get to the root of things. “OK, so you're not Asexual?”

“Pfft, no, I'm like, totally, um, like, B sexual. B+ even.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “So you're Bisexual?”

“Um, I guess. Humans are so weird about labels. Why are you asking anyway?” She took a large bite of her dessert.

“Why haven't we had sex yet?”

Kara choked.

Lena jumped up to pat her back while offering her a drink.

“Sorry, that was a little more blunt than I intended. But you kept going all over the place with letters and I got frustrated.”

Kara laughed and took a calming breath. “I'm scared honestly.” She put her fork down.

“Scared? Of what darling?” Lena took her hand.

“Hurting you.” Kara looked down in embarrassment. She hated having to talk about this but she knew that if she wanted things to work with Lena she had to. “When I've been with other people, I just kinda let them get on with it, so long as they got what they wanted. I mean I made the effort, I'm no slouch. But then I just kinda pretended when it came to me you know? I've always been scared of hurting someone if I lost control. I mean I broke this guys nose once just from kissing him. Can you imagine if he had been, you know.” She nodded downwards and blushed a ridiculous shade. “I could have broken his neck! It was just easier to pretend than getting into it.” She buried her head in her hands before looking up again. “I don't want to do that with you. You are so incredibly sexy that it stands to reason you enjoy sex and honestly, you know me too well, you'd probably figure it out and then you'd hate me and I'd feel awful and it would just be a thing and I don't know what else to do?” She was nearly pleading at this point.

“But, you've been, um, you know, by yourself?” Lena asked her awkwardly.

Kara went an even darker red. “Yeah, it's why my bed doesn't have a base or a frame, I kept breaking them. So I know I enjoy it. I just, you know, cant with someone else. I mean I could, but it could go horribly wrong.”

Lena put her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing.

“Hey! Be nice, I'm opening up here.” Kara threw a napkin at her.

“So what do they do at the DEO when you train with them? You said that they weaken you so you can fight the other agents and Alex. How do they weaken you there?”

“They have a room with Kryptonite dust in the walls. I cant use that, Alex would literally kill me if she found out I used the training room for sex. And honestly, be kinda hard to pay attention, it makes me feel sick a lot of the time.”

Lena looked horrified. “That's how they weaken you? That's awful! Can't they find another way?”

Kara shook her head. “They tried with red sunlight, but they couldn't make it work. I told them to let you look at it, but, well, it was before you knew I was Supergirl and they weren't too keen.”

“You mean like Lex tried to use to kill Superman?”

“Yeah but his project was too big and we don't have access to what he used or how he did it.”

“Can you get the information from the DEO, like how far they got and what they tried?” Lena asked. “Because I have access to Lex's notes. I'm sure between the two of us we can figure it out. And then you can use it for training rather than Kryptonite so Alex wont be really mad at us.”

Kara giggled. “Yeah I would rather tell her it was for that than tell her it was for sex. Pretty sure she would hunt us both down if I did that.”

Lena nodded thinking that first thing tomorrow she was going to hack the DEO to get their research and compare it to what Lex had found. “You know what, don't worry about it, I can get their schematics and they wont know. Winn is good with computer security, but I'm better.”

Kara held her hand over the table. “We can be, you know...” She blushed again, trying to find a suitable word. “Intimate, but it would have to be one sided. Which I'm good with, just so you know.” She nodded comically. “Like really, really good with that. I'd be totally OK with that.” 

Lena laughed at her expression. “Tempting.” She pulled her across the table by her sweater and kissed her until Kara felt her eyes crossing. “But If you think for one minute that you could spend the night in my bed and keep your cool, you are sorely mistaken Ms Danvers. How about we come up with something more permanent? I'm certain between us with the motivation involved it wont take very long at all.”

Kara sat back breathless. “I'm so glad I'm dating a genius.” She went back to demolishing her food. 

Lena was mentally coding.


	6. Waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay. My fur family was busy putting my vets kids through university.

_Waiting for you  
Just waiting  
Can't you see I'm waiting for you  
Don't break my heart_

_ -Madonna _

****

Alex walked solemnly into the DEO, still irritated from her trip to Strykers. She had spent the best part of last night ranting to Maggie about how someone could be living their best life while in prison for multiple homicides. At one point she veered into wondering how much influence Lena had on his current surroundings before Maggie cut her off'

“ _Babe. Lena? She helped put him there remember?”_

“ _Right, but doesn't it strike you as convenient? He takes the blame for everything, Lena swoops in and saves the company and all of a sudden they are making bank again?”_

“ _So how does that explain her tanking L-Corp and putting a giant target on her back from her family?”_

_ Alex shrugged, not prepared to let it go. “I don't know, but she did OK out of it. I mean she's still rich, she still gets everything she wants and now she's started her own mercenary army!” Alex built up her rant. _

“ _How much of this is because you don't like rich people and how much is that Lena is dating your sister?” Maggie asked carefully._

_ Alex scoffed. “I don't have a problem with rich people, I have a problem with people that are handed everything on a plate thinking they are better somehow. All the little digs Lena gets in about MIT being superior to Stanford. I got into Stanford on merit. Not my parents money.” _

“ _Pretty sure Lena getting in at 16 had nothing to do with Cash babe.” Maggie shrugged. “So how much is about her dating Kara?”_

_ Alex sat down in a huff. “I don't trust her. She can find far too many ways to kill Supergirl, Lex was apparently a good guy until he went batshit crazy, how are we supposed to protect Kara if Lena goes off the deep end? And she isn't dating Lena, I mean, not really.” _

_ Maggie just looked at her. “Yeah I kinda think she is.” _

_ Alex blushed. “Well, we'll see how long that lasts. Kara told me once that she cant really enjoy sex, you know because of her extra strength and worried about hurting people. Let's see how long that lasts then.” _

_ Maggie roared with laughter. “Oh baby girl, you really think little Ms evil genius isn't gonna find a way around that?” She carried on laughing much to Alex's annoyance. _

She stomped around to the main platform before a worried looking J'onn called her over. “What's wrong? What's going on?” 

J'onn handed her a letter. “You're being reassigned.” He said tightly.

Alex snatched the paper from him. “What the fuck? To where? And why? When did this come in? Did you know this was coming?” 

J'onn held his hands up to ward off her many questions. “I did not. Apparently you are to be _promoted_ to head the science division out at east point.”

Alex stood there with her mouth dropped. “Are you fucking kidding me? East point? That loser group that sit there listening for anomalies in space? What the fuck do they expect me to do out there?”

J'onn shook his head. “I have no idea, I am trying to find out who ordered it so I can get it overturned.”

“So when is this supposed to start?” Alex shouted. She looked at the paperwork. “Tomorrow? Are you really fucking kidding me!”

“Agent Danvers, calm down. I will get this overturned. I promise.”

She looked at him and took a deep breath. She knew he wouldn't let this go without a fight. She nodded at him in gratitude and went to walk away.

“One other thing, this came at the same time as the orders to move you.” He handed her a small flat package. 

Alex looked at it curiously before whipping a blade out from somewhere to open it. She pulled it out and her face drained of colour before turning the brightest red J'onn had ever seen on her. She gripped the contents so hard he thought she might shred it.

“Agent Danvers?” He queried.

“I'm going to fucking kill that bitch!” Alex shouted, dropping the package and storming back out to her motorbike ignoring her superior calling after her.

“What happened?” Winn walked over to see what had upset Alex so much. “It's just a t-shirt.” He looked at it. “Why would a t-shirt upset Alex so much? Not like she ever went to MIT.” He put it down, figuring it would all make sense after a while.

****

Lena looked up at the door, irritated at the interruption. She had finally broken through the DEO server firewall last night and was going through the red sun emulation that they had tried. Already marking in places where it wouldn't work and adding her own notes.

The person banging on her door clearly wasn't going to take no for answer, she flicked on the camera monitor and smirked when she saw Alex standing their, furious. She debated letting her stand out there before sighing and buzzing the door to let her in.

Alex stormed into the room with murder in her eyes. Lena decided the best way to head it off, before Supergirl heard Lena's heart rate spike and turned up in a panic, was to start talking first. She held up her hand to stop Alex's momentum.

“Two hundred thousand dollars Alex. Two hundred thousand and a corrupt politician, of which there are too many to count. That's all it took to have you removed. Now based on that, I imagine it would cost perhaps five hundred thousand more to move J'onn as well then that's Kara's protection gone for less than a million bucks and by now I assume you realize that is not out of Lex's reach. Lex may not know who Supergirl is but my mother is out and likely heading up Cadmus, it wont be long before she figures it out. Now perhaps you understand why I don't trust the government with things that can be used against her.” Lena sat back wondering if Alex would listen or just explode. Which ever it was, she really hoped she got on with it, since talking with Kara the other night she was really keen to get to grips with her red sun emulator.

“Why?” Alex asked her quietly.

Lena felt bad momentarily, Alex had clearly not got the right message. “This will all be announced as a mistake by this evening. This isn't permanent. It was an expensive lesson that I need you to understand about people with money and how they don't play by the same rules as you. No matter how disgusting you may find it.”

She opened her bottom desk draw and pulled out the expensive scotch she took from her L-Corp office and poured them both a large drink. Pushing it toward Alex, she kicked out the chair and motioned for Alex to sit down.

Alex sighed and sat down with a huff, taking the drink and taking a large swallow. She looked at Lena and tried to figure out what to say. In the end, honesty won out. “I don't trust you.” 

Lena tilted her head. “Because of my name?”

Alex nodded. “Because of your name. I'm sorry, but Lex used to be friends with Superman before he went out of his mind. What's to say that you wont do the same? You're the biggest threat to Kara right now, I cant ignore that.”

Lena finished her drink and poured another. “Technically I'm not the biggest threat to Kara, currently I'm probably ranked at fourth at least, behind Lex, Lillian, the Government. Fifth if you include the alien of the week that you go after. I'm way down the list of people that can hurt Kara.” Lena offered reasonably.

Alex just glared at her. “You really think this place is any safer to store all those things you may...”

Lena opened her mouth to interrupt. Alex lifted a hand to silence her.

“...or may not, have taken from L-Corp. The DEO is far better suited to prevent an incursion.”

Lena sighed. “Not if that incursion comes from inside Alex. Tell you what, seeing as you have time today, plan a heist! If you can break into my lab and steal what I may or may not have taken from L-Corp without being caught you can keep it at the DEO or where ever you like. I'll even throw in a bonus, I'll tell you where you can find all of Lex's caches of weaponry that no one knows about, not even Lillian.”

Alex leaned forward in excitement. “Lex has hiding places we don't know about?”

Lena sat back and smiled. “Three of them.”

“If you are so set on protecting Kara you should tell me anyway.” She demanded.

“For the love of, look, Alex, pay attention. I do not trust the DEO, they can be bought. And for far less money than I expected. I'm not going to hand over things that could be dangerous to that same organization. I intend to take my mini army in and get them out myself Whereupon I will keep them out of your hands.” She smirked. “Unless you can break into my lab.”

Alex looked around at the lab, trying to suss out the security. She suddenly noticed the large fruit bowl of picked over food on Lena's desk. “How come I never see these damn monkeys that Kara wont shut up about?” She looked around the tree, trying to spot them.

“Because you have a very angry energy, I don't think they like it.” Lena shrugged making Alex glare at her again.

“So I break in here, take the stuff from your vault and you will stop fucking about with Kara's safety?”

Lena glared back at her for that. “You can use any method you want, you will have to use stealth, you cant just blow the place up. Too many people will see and the police will be here with a swat team within five minutes. You can use which ever people you want. Hell you can ask Superman to help if you want. But not Kara, she knows how it all works. And we wouldn't want you to cheat now would we?” She smirked and sat back in her chair. 

Alex looked at her quizzically. “Kara knows how to break in?”

“No, Kara has the keys to walk in the door. Talking of which.” Lena looked up to the upper deck as Kara landed and let herself in.

“Hey guys!” Kara hopped down the stairs to where they both sat, her arm hanging weirdly behind her back. “What brings you here Alex?”

Alex glared at Lena. “Took an impromptu day off. What are you doing here?”

Kara blushed and pulled her arm out holding a dozen green stems with nothing on the end. “I was bringing these over to Lena but I had to stop a little mom and pop store that was being robbed. Stupid people shot at me with one of those speedy guns and they shot all the flowers off.” She looked at the pathetic stems before handing them over to Lena.

“I think they're lovely, thank you darling.” She kissed Kara's cheek and grabbed a beaker to put them in. “We can just pretend they're like those bamboo stalks.”

Kara beamed at her, Alex wanted to vomit.

“I have a gift for you as well. Can you take your super suit off, so you have your normal clothes on only?”

Kara gasped. “Is it done? Did you do it? Rao I knew you would, you're so smart! Alex you're gonna freak! Be right back!” 

She sped toward the back of the lab to get changed leaving a gust of papers in her wake. Lena quickly grabbed them so Alex didn't see any of the notes.

“What have you done that I am going to freak at?” Alex asked rubbing her face in exhaustion.

Kara came back dressed in what Lena affectionately referred to as her librarian disguise. She held out her arm and Lena attached a tasteful bracelet that wasn't as bulky as the one she used originally. 

Kara looked at Lena. “Can I do it?”

Lena grinned at her. “Yep, it's all done.”

“Check this out Alex!” Kara took off her glasses and shook her hair out. She put her thumb on the thickest part of the jewellery and pressed.

Alex audibly gasped as within seconds Kara was transformed into Supergirl. The nanobots sped around her body almost simultaneously turning into a dark blue metallic covering with the S logo prominently across the chest and a new darker red cape attached to the shoulders. The best part though was Kara's hair, she caught sight of it in the reflection of herself in the metal door and screamed. “How did you do that! You never said it could do that! Alex! I have blue bits in my hair! My kinda straight hair! How did you do that?” She grabbed onto Lena.

Lena laughed at Kara's reaction. “I thought if Supergirl has straight hair with some blue streaks you'd look even less like Kara Danvers. Give you a little more protection from people figuring out who you are. After the boys realized the first time they met you I worried that anyone else might figure it out as well.”

Lena stood and walked toward Kara. “It has a little pocket here for your glasses. Put them in and it will close around it.” 

Kara put them away and as she said, the pocket closed.

“There is also a com in your ear, no more lost and broken phones. It's tuned into the DEO frequency.”

“How do you know the DEO frequency?” Alex demanded.

Lena just winked at her. She leaned into Kara's other ear and whispered low enough that only Kara would hear her. “There is a private channel as well if you want to talk to me.” She kissed her on the ear making Kara blush.

“It's amazing.” Alex said walking around her. “Seriously, that's incredible. Does it have the same protection as the other suit?” 

“And pants! Alex I have pants!”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Yes, pants, but less importantly, is it flame retardant?” She asked Lena.

“It is and a few other tricks. Here.” She picked up a long lighter, turned it on and held it against the material. Lena held it there for a minute while the other two watched. “There you go, flame proof. K next!” She pulled open a draw with and retrieved a small gun, silencer already attached. “Don't want to scare the monkeys.” She smiled at Kara who awww'd at her.

She handed the gun to Alex. “I don't want to traumatize you by pointing a gun at your sister. Would you do the honours. Make sure to get a shot at where the glasses are, the suit has a kinetic displacement system that should mitigate a lot of the blunt force damage you take.”

Alex took the gun, mumbling something about traumatizing Lena. She lined it up and fired directly at the S, then at Kara's thigh, twice where the glasses should be and finally she emptied the gun into Kara's stomach. She handed the gun back and checked out the suit. “Incredible, no damage at all.” 

“I need you to test the waterproof part, can you pop into the water, just hover and let your legs hang in the water for a second then come back?”

Kara rushed up the stairs and out of the door. Lena and Alex winced as Kara nearly hit sonic levels in her excitement and the building shook a little. A few seconds later a wet Kara came back in to the lab.

“I thought she said dip your legs?” Alex smirked at her.

“I got excited and went for a swim. It works fine! This is going to make things much easier when I...” Kara stopped herself.

“Easier to what Kara?” Alex glared.

“Um, easier, to, you know, chase bad guys underwater?”

Alex groaned knowing there was going to be another missing whale report coming in.

“One last trick I need to test.” Lena grabbed a small lead box from her desk. “Don't be frightened, if this doesn't work, it can go right back in the box OK?” Lena asked her softly.

“Why? What is it?”

Lena opened the box and the familiar terrifying glow of green reflected in Kara's eyes and set her teeth on edge. 

“Lena” Kara backed away.

Alex jumped up in front of Kara. “What the hell are you doing Luthor?” She reached for her weapon.

Lena looked at Kara. “Do you trust me?” She spoke softly so as to not scare her further.

Kara automatically walked toward her pushing Alex out of the way. “Kara stay back!”

Kara smiled. “It's OK Alex. She wont hurt me.”

Lena could have cried she was so overwhelmed at the words. She picked up the small chunk of Kryptonite and held it against Kara's suit. 

“I don't feel it.” Kara whispered in shock.

“Are you sure that's Kryptonite?” Alex asked.

“It is, I can feel the residual of it, but it isn't hurting me. Lena.” She whispered. “How?”

Lena took the green stone and put it back in the lead box out of the way noting that Kara visibly relaxed. “I don't know how much protection it will give you against a large dose, but if someone tries to stab you or shoot you with it, or one of those awful blast guns that Lex used, it wont bring you down, you should be well enough to get out of trouble when you know they have Kryptonite. Use it for a while and let me know if you have any trouble with it. I can program the nanobots from here.” Lena typed a few lines of code and Kara's blue streaks turned pink making her giggle.

“How do I turn it back?” Kara looked around for a button.

“Press around your pulse point.”

Kara pressed a couple of times and the suit dematerialized, the glasses dropping to the floor as Kara moved to catch them.

“That is so cool!” She kissed Lena full on the lips. “I am so glad you are a genius.” She walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a roast chicken from the fridge.

Alex stood up. “Alright, I have a heist to plan.” Ignoring Kara's stare she nodded at Lena. “Good work, really, that's pretty amazing.”

“Alex?” Lena waited for Alex to turn around. “Please don't mention the anti Kryptonite element to anyone. The less people that know she is protected the better.”

Alex was about to refute that but stopped, thinking about everything that had happened the last 24 hours. She nodded in agreement.

Kara shoved a huge amount of food in her mouth and ran over. “I'll walk you out.” 

Lena went back to her research as the monkeys finally came down to see what was going on.

****

“What do you think of my suit? Pretty nifty huh?” Kara smiled.

“It is pretty amazing. She surprised me.” Alex replied.

“She isn't like the rest of them Alex, I wish you could see that.”

Alex sighed. “It's hard Kara, Luthors don't have a great track record.”

“By all accounts, her father wasn't evil, bit stiff maybe, but not crazy. Have you ever considered the crazy part comes from Lillian's side of the family? Cause let's be honest, they are both pretty crazy. Lena isn't going to hurt me Alex. I truly believe that. I wish you could give her a chance.”

“I will Kara, I promise. I had a chat to her earlier, she challenged me to break into her lab, said the stuff was safer with her than the DEO.”

Alex went on to tell her what Lena had done about getting her replaced. Kara was shocked that Lena would do that but as Alex continued talking and explained about the living conditions of Lex's prison she was starting to see her girlfriend's point of view. Sometimes the only way to deal with Alex was to smack her in the face with information she needed to have.

“So you gonna make nice with James now?”

Kara scowled. “What do you mean?”

“He says you wont talk to him. He says every time he tries to talk to you, you walk away. What's going on?” Alex took her arm.

“He's being a dick Alex.” Kara folder her arms in defiance. “All he wants to talk about is Lena and how terrible she is and how she is using me. He's really mean, like all the time. Like I talk to him about work things and he can barely wait to get it finished before he starts on Lena and my relationship with her which is keeps saying isn't real, that people like the Luthors don't have friends. Then every time we have a staff meeting, he calls me back every frickin time and immediately starts on it again. He even told me that my work is suffering for my _infatuation_. Can you believe that? I work so hard Alex, he has no right to say that to me.” 

Kara started crying so Alex brought her into a hug, whispering into her ear to get her to calm down. “I'll talk to James OK? I think it's less about Lena and more about jealousy, I was informed this morning that I might be more angry about Lena because she is dating my sister than I am about her being a possible evil super villain. And you know, my irritation with rich people.”

Kara chuckled as she wiped her eyes. “I just want my friend back you know?”

Alex nodded. “I'll speak to him. I promise.”

****

Kara was washing her hands after finishing the chicken. “I flew back home after I saw Alex off, I forgot that I made you something.”

Lena looked up from where she was squinting at the screen and altering lines on a schematic. 

“I made this for you, it lets off a really high pitched noise that only I can hear. If you get in trouble, press this button and I'll come right over.”

She wrapped the large watch looking thing around Lena's wrist and flipped the lid to show her how it worked. “I know it's kinda huge, but I figure you can work your magic and make it smaller. Alex has one, so does James. You all have different frequencies though so I know which one of you uses it.”

“Thank you darling.” Lena kissed her, surprised when Kara deepened it. She was even more surprised when she felt a hand move up her front and over her breast. There was nothing accidental about it, especially when she felt Kara's fingers drawing circles around her nipple making it hard and easier to play with. Lena moaned into her mouth, forgetting about her self imposed rules for a minute. Somehow Kara had walked them backwards and was now pressing Lena up against the wall, her other hand starting to stroke over her other breast.

“Kara.” Lena moaned out. “Darling this really isn't a good idea.” She began biting along Kara's neck wishing she'd had the forethought to make the super suit's neck line lower.

“I disagree, I think this is the best idea.” Kara moved her hand down and began unbuttoning Lena's pants, distracting her by kissing her even harder. She moved her hand inside the open fly, bypassing the lace underwear and slid her finger directly into Lena causing her to moan and break away from the kiss.

“Kara we cant.” She pushed halfheartedly against the immovable object in front of her.

“We really can though.” Kara pushed her finger in as far as it would go and started moving back and forth despite the strain on her hand from the angle. “Tell me what safe word you use.” She whispered.

Lena nearly choked as her arousal soared. “I thought you had somewhat limited sexual contact, how do you know about safe words?” She was starting to breath heavily and biting on Kara's ear. “And why do you think we'll be needing one? And seriously how am I supposed to think about safe words when you have your fingers inside of me.” 

“Singular”

“What?” Lena tried to follow conversation.

“I'm only using one finger.” Kara replied pushing it back and forth at a maddeningly slow pace.

“Is now really the time to be pedantic? Fine, how am I supposed to think of safe words when you have your _finger_ inside of me.” She snapped.

Kara shifted causing Lena to cry out. “Fingers, plural, try to keep up baby.”

“Jesus fucking Christ Kara. I swear, when this machine is built, I am going to make love to you like I have dreamt about for ages, however after that, all bets are off and there are not the words for how much payback this is gonna cost you.”

Kara laughed low in her chest. She brought her lips to Lena's ears and dropped her voice an octave. “Baby, when this machine is built, I'm gonna fuck you raw and after that, when you can walk in a straight line, I will happily deal with any and all paybacks and retributions you feel are needed.”

Lena was going to have to rethink her position as a top in this relationship.

“I wanted to make it special for you. I did so much research, you wouldn't believe the stuff I read about.” Kara continued in that low voice that was doing terrible things to Lena's will power.

Lena groaned and thought she was going to cry. “Kara stop. Please. I cant just let you fuck me against a wall and keep my hands to myself.” She leaned her head against Kara's chest as she felt her fingers move out and her hands wrap around her. “I'm sorry, I want you so very badly. But not like this.”

Kara sighed and pulled Lena even closer, kissing her head, her face, anywhere she could reach. “I thought it was worth a try.” 

Lena laughed quietly. “I expect nothing less from an over achiever. How about you help me with these red light emulators, I have some ideas, between us I really think we can make it work. And soon.”

Kara backed off, taking Lena by the hand and moving back to her desk so she could show her what she had found so far.

“Dare I ask what your research entailed.” Lena asked as she pulled up the blueprints and tried to get herself under control.

Kara sat in the chair next to her and read through Lena's notes, pointing out a couple of easy fixes that Lena sketched in.

“Well firstly I went to Lesbos. You know, Sappho. But it was filled with German holiday tourists, not Lesbians. Kind of a bust.”

Lena bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing.

“So then I went to India, read up on the Karma Sutra, and while technically it was was designed for men and women, once I realized you can buy something called a strap on it was really helpful. I mean you're pretty limber from all that yoga so we should be OK. Did you know about strap ons? You probably do, but I don't think I could go into a sex shop and buy one as Kara Danvers and if Supergirl went in it would be all over the news.” She giggled. “Thankfully I also did some online research and you can order them, so I'm gonna buy a strap on. Oh and then I broke into one of those hippy shops for women, you know with the nice candles shaped like body parts and incense and I read all their books on sex between women. So I'm all caught up now, we just have to get this thing working. How's that coming along?” She turned to Lena.

Lena's eyes were blown out, her breathing was slow and she looked like she was biting through her lip. “Kara, I can honestly say, I will have this fucking thing working within 24 hours come hell or high water.”

Kara smirked at her. “That's my girl. C'mon, let's get a prototype built we can tweak it from there.”

****

They worked on the machine well into the night when Kara heard the high pitched beeping that indicated James's alarm. She left Lena promising to be back as soon as she could and flew toward the sound. It was coming from Catco, at the top, where James's office was. She charged into the window and frantically looked around to see where the danger was.

James was sat at his desk looking quite calmly at her.

“What's going on? Are you in trouble?”

“I wanted to talk to you, without interruptions. This seemed the best way to do that.”

Kara was furious. “I gave you that for emergencies, not as a text service!”

“You don't answer my texts, what was I supposed to do?” He replied angrily.

“You could get the hint, that's what you were supposed to do!” She yelled at him. “When did you ever text me that I didn't reply, not counting all the times you just wanted to rag on Lena?”

“I don't know how else to get through to you!” James yelled back, banging his desk to make the point. “You can not be involved with Lena.”

Kara looked at him in confusion.

“Not gonna tell me I'm wrong? I saw you, when she dropped you off the other week, you kissed her outside the building, right out in the open. Have you lost your mind? Are you gonna tell me that you are sleeping with her?”

Kara started counting her breaths, she had never been so angry in her life. “I'm not going to tell you anything James. Who I sleep with, is none of your concern.”

James looked triumphant. “So you are sleeping with her?”

“I don't understand James. Is it because she is a woman?”

“It's because she is a fucking Luthor!” He screamed at her. “Do you know what her brother did to me?”

“Yes! I do! And I am so sorry that happened, but she isn't Lex, she is nothing like Lex. You are supposed to be my friend, do you really think I cant make my own decisions? Alex is only really angry because she gets angry with anyone I date. She was angry with you when I went out with you a couple of times. J'onn trusts her, he's a frickin mind reader James! If Lena had any nefarious intents she would never have got in the door at the DEO. You think you know better than that?”

“No one is infallible Kara, even J'onn can be fooled and she is clever enough and devious enough to know how to fool him. I don't understand why you would want to be with her like that.”

“James, I cant, I just cant with this.” She took his watch she had built for him and brought her hand down smashing it into pieces. “I gave you that as my friend. When you decide you want to be friends again, I'll build you another one. For now, you're my boss and you're free to critique my work on a professional level, but this harassment stops. Now.”

“Kara, you have to understand...”

“Now James. It stops now.” She turned away and flew back to Lena.

James watched her fly away, knowing that she wouldn't believe him until she saw with her own eyes what Lena was truly like. He walked to the large armoire in his office, opening it to show a large metal exoskeleton. He took it down and opened the bag he had taken from the DEO containing some of the alien tech that had been commandeered. He sorted through the bag to find the first element and began to fuse parts of them together.


	7. Nú Brennur Tú Í Mær

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moving in to the E rating. Not gonna be leaving tags left and right. It's an E rating, that pretty much covers it.

** Nú Brennur Tú Í Mær **

__ Kyssa hennar vælangandi tár,  
Lata hana grøða tíni sár.  
Nú brennur tú í mær 

_ -Eivør Pálsdóttir _

****

Maggie was staring at her girlfriend with the strangest look on her face. She watched as Alex carefully peeled what looked like a face mask off the expensive looking glass on her desk at the DEO.

“Babe, this looks like a James Bond clip, what exactly are you doing?”

Alex looked like she hadn't slept for 48 hours, the red rimmed eyes and slightly manic looking smile. “Getting my payback. Luthor thinks she is set up safe and sound in Fort Knox, I'm gonna show her she is playing in the big leagues now.”

“By peeling a face mask of a glass?”

Alex rolled her eyes. “This is a perfect hand print and enough to get us in her Lab. She was so busy gloating she just left it lying around.” Alex spun around to look at Maggie directly. “And that carelessness is why she can not have these alien artifacts in civilian hands, no matter how good her intentions. You know what they say about good intentions?”

Maggie scoffed. “Yeah, they make your girlfriend turn into a nutbar. Why are you breaking into Lena's lab and why did I hear an _us_ in that conversation. You do remember I'm a cop right? Part of the job, pretty big part of it, is that I'm not allowed to go around breaking the law.”

Alex waved her off. “Lena knows, she said if I can break into her lab she will hand over all the stuff that she shouldn't have. She thinks she has it locked up tight, well we are gonna break in using this and show her that she is not the genius she thinks she is.” Alex smiled triumphantly.

“Pretty sure she is babe. But you do you. So when are we going in?”

“Tonight. Lena is probably working normal hours now. We'll head out after dinner. I just need to attach this to a rubber hand mould that I made. We go there, I put the mould on, voila, we're in. Not sure about getting to the vault, but we can get in with this, check it out, plan part two!”

“OK then, I'll see you tonight at dinner.” Maggie waved goodbye, shaking her head. This was not going to end well, she could feel it in every cop bone she had. At least Lena was expecting them so they wouldn't have to explain anything when they were inevitably caught.

****

Lena squinted at the wiring in the small box. Queequeg was holding two small jewellery screwdrivers that she would randomly swap out with the little monkey. Tashtego sat watching in fascination as she gently tightened a spring coil hoping that this time it would catch on the edge rather than spring out of the box. She was lost in her own head, oblivious to the outside world, she almost had it, one, last, turn.

The screech of the outside door chime shocked her back to reality. The spring flew out of the box and she dropped it on the desk. The monkeys shot off to the tree until they knew who was coming in.

“Bugger.” Lena sighed and flicked the camera on to see who she needed to yell out. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw the smartly dressed woman waiting patiently outside, behind her looking quite menacing for his size was Gunner. She buzzed them in, looking to Gunner first.

“We picked up the gear. Twofer is back at our place making sure it all works, checking the tanks and all. We had to guess on your size but we're pretty sure it will fit OK. Worse case scenario, you get a bit wet.” He grinned at her. “Twofer and Tuck brought the craft back, they are taking it for a spin, make sure we don't sink.”

Lena smiled at him, still amazed at the change a shave, a shower and some new clothes had given her security team. “Where's Ozzy?”

“He's out with Sam and Ruby, offered his muscles to help them move into the new place. We offered to help, but he said he had it. Imagine that.” Gunner laughed. “K, we'll let you know when it's all set up, we can take your machine out and give it a whirl.” 

He waved as he walked out, leaving Lena to deal with her guest, who was currently looking around in wonder. When Gunner left, she turned around and pinned Lena with an intelligent stare.

“Lena Luthor, to hear Kara tell it you are the most beautiful woman in the known world and a few more we don't yet know about. You look terrible.” She smiled and held out her hand in greeting. 

Lena took her hand and shook it firmly, glad that her nervousness was not showing on the outside. Lena pointed to a seat and waited for Lois to get comfortable.

“I'm kidding, you look like I do when I am chasing a story and forgot to sleep for a day or two.”

“Lois Lane. I can hardly believe it myself. What brings you to National City?” 

“You bring me here actually. Kara came to visit. She's having some trouble with James, wanted Clark, to help out in talking to him. Imagine our surprise when she cant stop talking about this incredible woman that she is dating.”

Lena blushed.

“Imagine how much more surprised Clark was to find out that this incredible woman was none other than Lena Luthor.”

Lena sighed. “That must have been weird.”

“My father is an asshole who would gladly get rid of every alien on the planet, including the man I love. We're not their keepers. That hatred is on them, not on us.” Lois waggled her hand. “Beside, we follow the news. I saw what you did to L-Corp. That made Clark less explosive than he perhaps might have been.”

“I'm not like the rest of them. I'm not like Lex.” Lena said stiffly.

“Clearly not, because the other thing Kara couldn't wait to show off was her shiny new Super suit. It was the anti Kryptonite that finally stopped Clark from worrying. Even when he and Lex were friends, there was never anything altruistic about his grand gestures. So obviously you know who Clark is?” Lois asked.

“I knew before I knew who Kara was. Lex kept records.” Lena replied.

“Ah, I see. And where are those records now?” She asked bluntly.

“I have them, despite his insanity and hatred, there is a lot of knowledge in his records that I can use to help the Supers, Lex's research into Kryptonite saved me a lot of time. I have however destroyed any reference to Clark, just on the off chance my records are ever compromised.”

Lois finally smiled fully at Lena as though she has just proved her assumptions correct. “Clark is quite jealous of Kara's new toy. He is also very proud. He would never ask you to help him. I however am not. I love my husband Ms Luthor, I would gladly crawl through broken glass from Metropolis to National City to ask for your help.”

Lena opened up one her desk draws and pressed a button at the back making a small section of the desk pop out. She reached in and pulled out a watch that she handed to Lois. “I was just waiting for him to ask, I didn't think he would take it if I offered, as you say, he's too proud.”

Lois looked at the watch in amazement.

“There is a plastic cover on the face, take that off, have Clark put a fingerprint on it, it will then only work for him. I have access to the nanobots from here, the com will also link to me so if he needs help I can give it to him.”

Lois stood up, Lena followed suit. She was surprised when she felt the older woman's arms encircle her and squeeze tightly. “Thank you Ms Luthor, I mean that from my heart.” She whispered.

Lena hugged her back. “Lena. I left Ms Luthor as the wreckage of L-Corp.”

They stepped back from each other and smiled. “It goes without saying, if I we can ever help you, you need only ask.”

She walked to the door. “I should be back in Metropolis in a few hours, I'll let you know how it goes.”

Lena handed her a card with her number of it. Lois looked at the branding. “Keiran Solutions. I cant wait to see what you create, I have no doubt the world will be a better place for it. Call me for an interview when you launch your next project.”

And with that, she left a slightly shaken Lena to go back to her spring coils.

****

“Blondie, get in here!” Kara looked up assuming that Snapper was yelling at her. 

“What's up boss?” She forced a smile on her face. Smiling was so easy for Kara, until she had to deal with ignorant and angry men like Snapper.

“National City has a new vigilante.” He pressed a button on the remote and a news feed came up showing several scenes with a person in a metal suit, head covered throwing things casually out of the way as he fought with some drug dealers. Another scene of him disarming some robbers. Yet another of him lifting a small van off an injured woman and finally him walking away from a fight, several men laying motionless on the ground behind him as some breathless blonde news woman ran up to him, asking who he was, where he came from, what is his name. The metallic man looked into the camera and spoke with a voice disrupter. ' _I. Am Guardian'._ Before jumping to a nearby rooftop and disappearing. “I want to know everything there is to know about this guy. Find out what Supergirl thinks, talk to your alien friends. I want the exclusive with this guy. Finally we get a real superhero in National City, not a damn alien!”

Kara's smile dropped. She knew people had similar thoughts, but hearing it from her boss was harder. So he didn't like Kara Danvers and he didn't like Supergirl but some dude shows up in metal suit and he's as happy as a clam. She grit her teeth and forced the smile back. “On it!”

She did her usual trip out of the office and downstairs to change into Supergirl before flying off to the DEO.

“Alex!” She called as she landed.

“Supergirl, just in time. It appears we have a new player in town.”

“So I heard. Snapper just played the highlights of last nights newsreel. Who is this guy? Snapper thinks he is human and is happy that, and I quote, finally we have a real superhero. Do we know anything?”

Alex shook her head, she beckoned Kara up to the top workstation where the TV screens sat. She played back the news from last night. “He isn't an alien, or at least an alien that can fly. He does have alien tech however. Those force jumpers he is using, the ones to get him on top of high buildings. We have similar stuff in the vault.”

Kara looked around seeing Nia, Brainy and Winn working on various things. “Where's James?” 

Alex shrugged. “Says he has too much going on with Catco recently, cried off working with the DEO because of a conflict of interests. Something about journalistic integrity.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Right, he has sudden journalistic integrity. So he's sulking then?”

Alex shrugged again. “Seems like. I don't think he would have anything to add. If he knew about this from the news, you have the same access.”

“We need to find out who he is, and soon. I don't care if he thinks he is one of the good guys, someone will get hurt or he is gonna inspire others to do the same. Ungh, men and their fragile egos.” Kara snapped.

Alex laughed. “Maggie will be thrilled to welcome you to the anti-patriarchy club. Keep an eye out when you patrol later.”

****

Lena held her hands as still as possible. For the second time today she was milliseconds away from making a device that would get her laid. One. Last. Turn.

The alarm for the front door sounded. 

“For the love of fuck!” She slammed the box down again as the monkeys ran for the tree taking her screwdrivers with them. She flipped the switch to see Sam standing outside waving. She shook her head and buzzed her in.

Sam came in smiling and opened her mouth to speak. At the last second she seemed to remember something and moved her hands to sign something to Lena, grinning when she felt she got it right.

Lena burst out laughing. “What do you think you just said to me?”

Sam blushed. “Um, Hello my friend? What did I actually say.”

“You said hello fucker.” 

Sam cringed. “That might explain last night. So what are you up?”

“Trying to get laid, I think I'm gonna give up and try to fix this at home. Less interruption. Not that you count as an interruption!” She offered hurriedly. 

“Well catch up Luthor, I forgot my name on the first date with Ozzy.” Sam grinned triumphantly.

“That's because you are a tramp who drops her underwear on a whim.”

“That was **one** time! One time I mooned a police car and I would never have done it had you not got me drunk and dared me!”

“So things are going well with Ozzy if you are trying to insult him with sign language at least.” Lena teased her.

“He's adorable. And he wants to spend time with Ruby, he doesn't see her as a burden. In fact the two of them became fast friends with the way he asked me out. Definitely a keeper. But don't let me keep you from the pursuit of young love and dropped underwear. I wanted to leave this paperwork with you, let you know that Jess has signed on officially and oh my God what a gift that was! Also we filled the security positions. Your man came over, from L-Corp. Brought some friends with him. Apparently you were more popular than you realized.” She smiled at Lena's blush.

“Wonders never cease. Put them on payroll immediately, I want things ready to go as soon as we can.”

“You're gonna kill my budget if you do that.” 

Lena shrugged. “I wont judge you until we hit six months.” She grinned.

“Right, I have another date tonight, no name forgetting though, Alex said she had a prior engagement and couldn't sit Ruby so she is coming with us. I drew the line at Chucky Cheese but God alone knows where we are going!”

“You know you can always ask me to sit for Rubes, I'm perfectly safe around small people.” Lena offered.

“Children Lena, they are called children, not small people. You're not inspiring confidence here.”

Lena stood up grabbing her keys. She set the alarm in place and walked with Sam to the door. “Drop you anywhere?” She offered.

“Nope, picking up Ozzie then we're gonna collect Ruby from her friends place. Enjoy your evening, good luck with your sex box!”

Lena grimaced as she pulled her car out of the building and headed home.

****

Kara landed on the balcony of Lena's apartment with a swoosh of her cape. She walked into the unlocked door to find Lena sat at the breakfast bar putting the lid on a grey box.

“You need to start locking the door.” Kara said as she walked over, taking Lena in her arms.

“Hello you.” Lena smiled at her, kissing her gently. “And why? You're the only flying person I know and I want you to be able to come in when you want.”

Kara walked to the fridge and grabbed a sandwich that Lena had brought for her. “Not anymore.” She spoke around a mouthful of bread. “Did you put lettuce in this?” Kara groaned.

“It's the tiniest piece ever, don't be a baby.”

“If it's so tiny, what's the point?” Kara smirked at her. She noticed something on the breakfast bar that didn't belong there. “Why is there an iron bar on the table?”

Lena smirked at her. “Finish your sandwich and you can find out.”

Kara literally shoved the rest of the food in her mouth all at once, much to Lena's disgust. “You really have the most appalling manners.”

Kara raised her eyebrow in question. “How so?” She swallowed.

“Well you're a messy eater for one.”

Kara wrapped her arms around Lena from behind, leaning down to speak quietly into her ear. “There's gonna come a time when you take those words back you know.” She nipped her ear gently.

“Really? And when is that likely to happen?” Lena scoffed.

“When I eat you for the first time.” Kara whispered.

“Oh fuck!” Lena fell backwards into Kara's waiting arms. “Fuck! That's it, the iron bar. Come with me!” She pulled away leaving a confused Kara behind. “Actually, don't come with me, stay there.” She took the box and plugged it into the wall. “K, can you bend that bar?”

Kara looked at her strangely, picked the bar up and twisted it into a bow. She grinned at Lena as she offered it to her, surprised that Lena looked grumpy.

“Hmm, OK, can you bring it over here and try again.” Lena cranked the dial up to high.

Kara stood next to her near the wall. Kara was chuckling to herself figuring out what kind of iron balloon animal she could make. She went to wrench the bar open to straighten it and found she was really struggling. It took her a few minutes to get it un-bowed. She looked at Lena confused at the giant smile on her face. “What are you so happy about? Oh wow, is that it? Did you do it?” She grinned.

“Yes and no I think. Yes I did it, but unless we want to have sex standing on it, I think it needs to be tweaked.”

“How long will that take?” Kara practically squealed.

“Fingers crossed, I can fix it tomorrow!” 

Kara scowled. “Tomorrow? You cant fix it tonight?”

Lena burst out laughing. “You wanna fly me back to the lab Supergirl?”

Kara beamed. “Heck yes!” She scooped Lena up and sped them out of the window. Five seconds later she flew them back in and grabbed the box, looking at a scowling Lena sheepishly. “My bad. Hold tight!”

****

“You need my help? Would it go faster if I helped?” Kara hovered over the workstation on the second tier landing.

Lena was both amused at Kara's enthusiasm and annoyed at her hovering. “Actually, Tash and Queeg ran off with my little screwdrivers earlier, you could go find them.” She forced a smile as Kara dashed off to the monkeys.

Lena was looking at the box like it was a Rubik's cube that needed solving. Slightly distracted by Kara laughing with the monkeys as they teased her with the tools. She cocked an ear to listen carefully and heard part of the conversation.

“ _Listen fuzzy, I need that screwdriver, it's like super important. Your mama is making a magic box so I can screwdriver her magic box.” Kara laughed to herself. “Don't tell her I said that.” She looked terrified. “Not like you can talk. Yet. Bet she finds a way to talk to you. Your mama is so smart. It's one of the many reasons that I love her. Smart chicks are hot.”_

Lena smiled and looked over to Kara floating mid air picking apart a mango for the monkeys and eating bits of it herself. Finally Tashtego couldn't take it anymore and dropped the screwdrivers to grab at the fruit. Kara floated down gently holding both of her furry companions. She put them gently on the ground at the base of the tree, handing over half a mango to each of them before collecting Lena's tools.

“Got them!” She yelled triumphantly and floated up to where Lena was working.

“I don't actually need them, I just wanted you to stop hovering.” Lena grinned.

“I feel used. And hungry.” 

“There's a cooked ham in the fridge.” Lena offered.

“A whole one?” Kara shook with happy.

“A whole one. Honestly you should see the looks I get when I stop at the organic charcuterie. _Can I have 3 chickens, a ham and 3 dozen sausages plus 5 kilos of that smoked Gouda. Why yes I was in here yesterday buying much the same._ ” She mocked herself.

“Best girlfriend ever.” Kara leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I'm gonna go empty your fridge while you fix this and I can show you properly.”

Lena went back to the box. She knew it was emitting red light, she knew there was only so much she could push out of it without increasing the size of the emitter to an unworkable degree. She didn't want to have it the size of an air conditioner if she could avoid it. She looked around for inspiration. She looked at the centrifuge on the other side of the lab. It had metal flaps on the side to help it maintain it's speed and an idea struck her. She ran down the stairs to one of the back rooms that she had turned into a storage and sleep area. Looking into the various boxes she had scattered around, she found the excess solar panels for the glass roof. She grabbed one of them and went back to the lab. Turning it over and back and forth she tried to figure a way to make the needed cuts without breaking the glass. She mentally made a note to get a laser at some point. Then made another note to invent a device that she could install into each room that would connect to her computer to record her often random thoughts and ideas.

That's when she stumbled on another one. “Kara, can you come up here, I need to use you again.”

A disembodied head appeared over the railings. “Kinky.” Kara smiled.

Lena rolled her eyes, drawing lines on the glass. “Can your heat vision cut glass?”

Kara nodded.

Lena ran her finger over the lines she had drawn. “Just there please.” She stood back while Kara made perfectly straight cuts in the glass. Lena stacked them neatly and drew a tiny circle on the top one. “Can you put a small hole there?”

Kara unstacked them and lay them down flat. “If I try to go through them all at once, I'll probably set the place on fire.” She giggled.

When she had four perfect holes, Lena went back to the grey box and Kara went back to her ham. Lena rolled her eyes and used her sleeve to wipe off the food particles left behind. She mumbled to herself something _about better fucking eat me after all this._

There was a choking noise from the kitchen area making Lena smirk. She attached the glass pieces to the box then looked around for a spare socket.

“Why is there never enough damn sockets. I built this place, you think I would have enough sockets.” She grumbled as she went back to the storage / sleep area. “Kara can you come in here? And please wash your hands!”

Kara turned the tap off and looked around. “Where are you?” She yelled.

“Bedroom!” 

She followed the sound of Lena's voice to the back area of the lab, down a couple of steps into a whole new floor. “How come I've never seen this?” 

Lena stuck her head out of the room. “Oh, um, it goes underground, kind of. I have a training room down here. Well, it was originally going to be more storage but we needed somewhere for the boys to help train me. Not something I wanted to do in a regular gym.”

“I see. And a bedroom?” Kara raised her eyebrow. 

“Not really.” Lena laughed. “But I forget to sleep sometimes you know. And I thought what if the monkeys were ill and I had to stay here.” She said sheepishly. “So I got a futon for emergencies.”

Kara grinned at her. “That's so adorable!”

Lena plugged the box in the wall and set the dial to minimum, she plugged it in and waited. 

Kara looked around, finding a catalogue of laboratory equipment the size of a phone directory. She started to tear it in two, realizing that she had to really struggle.

“Oh my God, it works! Hold on a second, let me turn it up.” Lena changed the dial to mid settings. “Try it now!” She demanded.

Kara did as instructed. She couldn't do it. She looked at Lena smiling. “You did it.” She whispered. “You actually did it!”

Lena's smile threatened to crack her face in two. “Here, stand still.” Kara braced herself and Lena shoved her as hard as she could, amazed when Kara staggered back a bit. “Oh wow. OK, take my hand. Squeeze it, gently at first, work it up slowly.”

Kara took her hand and slowly squeezed, fearful of hurting Lena. She watched her face for any signs that she was hurting her. She got harder and harder and when she was really putting in the effort she saw Lena's face change. “I was really holding tightly then, I didn't break your hand.” She said in wonder.

“OK I'm going to turn it off, I want to make sure it doesn't affect you long term.” She switched the machine off and Kara immediately picked up the catalogue again and ripped it in half without any effort. She started laughing. “I said it before and Ill say it again, I am so glad I am dating a genius!”

Lena joined in laughing. “Just to be safe, can you call Alex, tell her you wont be available for emergencies tonight. The last thing I want is to have you exposed to this for a while and find out that it takes longer to recover. I'm going to set the alarm upstairs.”

“OK. Wait, we're not going back to your place?”

Lena looked at the futon and back to Kara. “Did you want to wait?” She bit her lip. “Besides...” She pointed up at the glass roof showing the stars and the quarter moon above.

Kara grabbed her phone from her pocket. “Calling Alex now.”

Lena laughed as Kara fumbled over the numbers as she moved quickly upstairs to set the alarm, locking them in safely.

****

Alex saw Kara's name come up on her phone. “What's up sis? Uh huh, uh huh. OK sure. No problem. Take care and I'll call... She hung up.” Alex spoke to Maggie standing behind her. “Kara is spending the evening with Lena on a date apparently, says she doesn't want to be disturbed unless there is an invasion. Honestly I'm surprised the sexual frustration hasn't broken them up yet. Right! That means Lena is away from the lab, operation Bite Me is a go!” Alex cackled and grabbed the rubber arm with Lena's hand print. She picked up a few other things and put them in a dark bag before heading for the door. “Coming?” She asked her girlfriend.

Maggie shook her head, instincts screaming at her that this was a really bad idea and was going to end really badly.

****

Lena walked back into the room as Kara was deactivating the suit leaving her standing there in her black khakis and a blue button down shirt. She put her phone and her glasses down on one of the random boxes in the room. She shut the door behind her and finally stood in front of Kara with no boundaries. She wanted the first words she said to be meaningful, to share something about this potentially momentous occasion.

“Fuck I want you.”

Lena nearly melted at how hot those words were coming out of Kara's mouth. Before she had time to comment on it Kara was in her space kissing her like she was the last stop in the desert.

“We never did figure out a safe word for you.” Lena groaned and felt herself drop, Kara's strong arms holding her up. “Have you ever heard of the traffic light safe words? Red for stop, yellow for slowdown, green for go. It's apparently very popular in the BDSM community. Can you remember that?” 

Lena nodded rather than wasting time talking so she could go back to Kara's lips.

Kara moved her hands under Lena's sweater and straight into her bra from above. She cupped her breasts firmly, using her palms to harden the nipples. “Fuck you feel so good.” She began kissing down Lena's pale neck leaving little suction marks behind.

“Damn right I do. Since when do you curse?” Lena was trying to get Kara's shirt undone.

“When I'm in your bed, I'm not Kara Danvers. I'm Kara Zor El. She curses.” 

Lena started laughing at Kara talking in third person. “Fuck it, help me get this off.” She tugged at the shirt trying to get it unbuttoned and out of Kara's pants.

In an impressive show of strength Kara ripped the shirt open and pushed it off her arms while Lena took her sweater off leaving her in a green lacy bra. They met back again in crash of teeth and tongues. Kara reached around to undo the clasp, pulling the bra gently off Lena's shoulders.

She pulled Lena to kneel on the bed as she sat down on the edge, kissing around Lena's breasts, between them, under them. She held her tightly by the ribs before pulling her upright and into her mouth.

Lena moaned and leaned forward, kissing the top of Kara's head. Inhaling the scent that she had come to associated only with her lover. The scent of outside, far above the clouds. She put her hands on either side of Kara's face pulling her up to kiss her again. She ran her tongue in Kara's mouth, enticing Kara's tongue into her mouth where she began sucking on it gently.

Kara put both hands on Lena's breasts again, pulling and twisting at both nipples softly.

“Harder. Green, so very green.” Lena whispered against her lips.

Kara followed her directions, kissing Lena's face where ever she could reach. Pinching and twisting with her fingers. “I knew you would catch on fast.” She smirked.

“And what about you? Tell me what you like.” Lena ran her hands on the outside of Kara's bra.

“Gently, it takes a while to stop being sensitive.”

Lena stroked across the material until she felt Kara get hard. “Does that go for anywhere else?” She moaned as Kara took her nipples into her mouth again, sucking hard. Biting around her breasts.

“Nope, just there, you can fuck me as hard as you like.” She smiled around a mouthful.

Lena's hands flew to Kara's pants desperately trying to get them undone. Her fingers no longer shaking she had them open and was pushing them down before Kara had a chance to catch up.

Lena slapped her hands out of the way while she finished tugging Kara's pants off. As soon as she stood up, Kara carefully pulled Lena's jeans down, leaving her in the matching green lace underwear. “Scoot up to the end for me.”

Lena moved pulling Kara with her to lay between her legs. She brought their mouths together again, reaching around to undo Kara's bra. When it was out of the way, she looked at her, finally naked and in her bed and gasped. “You're so beautiful.” She whispered reverently.

Kara blushed, smiling as she looked down. “And you are a Goddess.” She lay her full weight down on Lena and kissed her again. Moving from her mouth to her neck and back to her breasts. “Do you know how many times I broke my bed thinking of you?”

Lena let out a breathy sigh, instantly wet thinking of Kara touching herself and thinking of Lena.

Kara kissed her chest, moving slowly down to her stomach, to just above the line of her underwear. She sat back on her heels, looking at the nearly naked woman that had haunted her dreams since the day she walked into her office.

Lena wasn't vain, but she knew she cut a more than attractive picture laying there half naked, her hands behind her head pressing her breasts upwards, her legs closed and pulled up. She winked at Kara. “See something you like?”

Kara stroked her hands down those pale legs until they reached her knees. “Spread your legs for me baby.”

Lena kept her eyes on Kara as she gently let her legs fall to each side of the bed. Kara ran her eyes down her body stopping to stare at the last prize covered with a lacy fabric. She moved one hand down her thigh, stopping when she reached her goal. Pressing her thumb down, rolling it up and down. “You smell so fucking good.”

Lena shut her eyes as her arousal spiked.

“Do you know how many times I would spend lunch or dinner with you and I could smell your arousal and every time I wondered if it was me that caused it.” Kara spoke quietly, never stopping the movement of her thumb.

Lena opened her eyes. “It was always you. I've wanted you for so long.”

Kara smiled and began pulling at the elastic waistband, ridding Lena of the last barrier between them. She brought the lace to her nose and inhaled deeply. “Every time we went out, I would go home and cry out your name with that scent in my head.” She looked down and parted Lena with her fingers. “You are so wet.” She ran her fingers through her folds, rolling around her clit, spreading the evidence of the effect she had on the youngest Luthor.

Lena was starting to move her hips without thinking about it. “Kara please, I need you inside of me.” She pleaded.

Kara grinned down at her. “Don't you remember what I promised?” She fell forward, kissing Lena with wet open mouthed kisses. “I told you when you finished that machine, I was gonna fuck you raw. And I always keep my promises.” She slammed two fingers into Lena and started thrusting mercilessly.

“Oh God yes! Fuck, harder. Harder, please Kara. Oh fuck yes. So good.” Lena wrapped her legs around Kara's middle and held on for the ride. Using her core strength she pulled up to meet each thrust, making them hit harder.

“Fuck Lena. Fuck you feel so tight. So fucking tight.” Kara pulled her fingers out and grabbed Lena's hips. “Turn over baby, I want you on your knees.”

Lena bit her lip and rolled over slowly. While Kara watched she spread her legs and brought her hips up, pushing her top half down, her arms stretched to the end of the bed. She looked over her shoulder to see Kara staring at her, her eyes dark with desire, her mouth hanging open. “You can fuck me raw now.”

Kara knelt quickly behind her, thrust her fingers back in and began pounding as hard as she could, twisting her fingers as they pulled out. Using her hips to push her hand harder, she pulled on Lena's hips pushing her back and forth as she slammed into her. As Lena's noises began to sound pornographic Kara increased the pace until she was sweating with the effort. “I gonna buy a strap on, turn the red light down a little and fuck you until you beg me to stop. God I wanna hear you begging.”

“Kara, fuck, feels so good. Please Kara, make me come baby, please make me come, please don't stop, I need you to make me come.” Lena obliged her.

Kara gave it one last effort, her arm was burning from the exhaustion. “Fuck yes, come for me. Wanna see you come. Want you to come over my hand.”

Lena turned her head around, looking over her shoulder. “Look at me. Kara.” She struggled to breathe out the words.

Kara met her eyes just as Lena let go and came loudly. 

Kara ran out of energy and fell forward on top of Lena, kissing across her back, leaving suckling marks where ever she went. She felt her girlfriend stretch out her back and moaned.

“That's a first. I've never come like that before.”

Kara mumbled something against her back.

“I mean from someone being inside me, just being inside me.”

A blonde head shot upright. “That's good right?”

Lena could hear a little of the insecurity seep in. “Oh very much. It's not just me, I don't think many women can come like that. You should be suitably pleased with yourself.” She teased.

“Oh I'm plenty pleased right now.” Kara laughed.

“Let's see if we can make that a little better for you then.” Lena rolled over so Kara was on her back. She moved her hips around, sliding both legs underneath Kara's. Grabbing her hands, she pulled Kara upright until they were face to face.

Lena kissed her neck, moving up to her ear. “I'm going to show you what I was thinking about every time we had lunch and you knew I was wet.”

Kara groaned as Lena kissed her deeply, she felt a hand move between her legs, stroking her up and down. Her hips began to move and Lena kept her fingers still.

“Want you to ride me, use those incredible muscles of yours to get yourself off on my hand.”

Kara wasn't sure how she was going to achieve this as her body seemed to be moving without any direction from her. She slid her hips up and felt Lena's fingers enter her. She moved them back and felt them slide out and rub up to her clit. She started a rhythm getting faster and faster, every time she felt Lena move inside she moaned loudly.

Lena bent her head down taking Kara's breast into her mouth, as Kara swung backwards and forwards she sucked on the other one, her hand grasping Kara's ass to hold her in place. “This is what I thought about when you knew I was turned on at lunch. Well, this and riding your face.”

Kara started moving her hips faster as the crass words.

“You like that idea? Want me to ride your face Kara? Wanna find out how long a Kryptonian can hold their breath for with my cunt in your mouth?”

Kara exploded. “Lena!” She pushed her hips forward, Lena's fingers still buried inside of her, the aftershocks making her body jerk and spasm on Lena's lap.

When she finished shaking she let out a laugh. “Damn, OK, so, apparently I have a thing for your dirty mouth.” She pressed her forehead against Lena, sharing the same breath she realized she had never been this happy in her life.

“I'm crazy in love with you.” She smiled.

Lena smirked at her. “Wait till you buy a strap on, you're gonna build me a shrine.”

Kara fell backwards laughing as she relaxed against the pillows. “Oh wow. So, I wanna do that to you now. Ride me till you come.”

Lena lifted Kara's hand and sucked her wet fingers into her mouth, briefly short circuiting Kara's brain. She moved forward to get into the same position as Kara was when a hand stopped her. 

“Ah ah ah. Not my hand.” Kara put her hands behind her head and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

“Scoot down a bit.” Lena pulled her hips down.

“You don't want to hold onto the headboard?” Kara asked.

“And miss the opportunity to use all that strength from yoga? Not a chance.” She began to crawl seductively forward until she was positioned over Kara's mouth. “Buckle up Blondie. We're going for a ride.” 

****

Alex looked around the quiet street, noticing that Lena's lab was in darkness and their plan was off to a good start. She walked casually forward so if anyone should see them, they wouldn't be looking suspicious.

When they reached the entry way, Maggie stood with her hands in her pockets trying to calm herself down, hoping that the anxiety she felt was just because she was technically about to break into a private building.

Alex dropped the dark bag down, unzipped it and pulled out the rubber hand mould with Lena's perfect hand print on it. She pressed it to the security pad and waited, grinning the whole time.

The Machine beeped red. 

Alex took it off and did it again, frowning.

The machine scanned this time, a red bar moving from top to bottom. When it reached the base, the speaker cracked to life and an automated feminine voice came out.

“ _Facial Recognition activated. Subject, Danvers, Alex. Senior DEO Agent. Subject should be aware that this is a living tissue bio-metric hand scanner, using an amputated hand or a simulation of a hand print will not work. You would be aware of this if you went to a proper educational establishment like MIT or Cambridge.”_

Maggie had to bite her lips to stop the laugh from booming out. Alex stood there, red faced and seething.

“Fucking bitch. Right. Plan B. We head up to the roof and laser cut through the glass on the roof, abseil down and do it that way.”

Maggie shook her head. “Laser cut the roof? Abseil down? Can you hear yourself now? Alex, babe, this has to stop.”

Alex whirled around and jabbed a finger in her chest. “No! No, she doesn't get to be in charge of what is safe when it comes to my sister. They're not that close.”

“Why didn't you ask for Superman's help? Lena said you could.” Maggie asked sullenly.

“I did, he laughed and said no. Weird huh? Not sure why.”

She grabbed the black bag and walked around the back of the lab to the lowest point of the roof. Pulling out a grappling gun, she fired into a wooden section of the roof, when the gun caught, she began slowly walking up the side of the building, aided by the thin metal rope being wound back into the handle. When she reached the top, she wrenched out the gun and looked below to see Maggie standing around trying not to be seen. She dropped the gun, nodding in approval as Maggie caught it. There was a clunk in the wood next to her as Maggie's shot hit and she too began walking up the side of the building.

“I feel like Batman.” She huffed out when she got to the top.

Alex shushed her and put the gun away. They snuck across the roof top to the lowest point of the glass. Alex pulled out the laser cutter and was about to cut a wide circle when she looked down.

“Oh holy God in heaven no!” She whispered.

Maggie looked down to see what had spooked her usually unspookable lover. 

In a dimly lit room, surrounded by boxes, junk on some kind of mattress, a naked Kara lay down, Lena riding her face like a champion, her arms behind her head, breasts bouncing in time to her swaying hips. Kara chose that moment to start spanking Lena's ass and Alex let out a squeak of horror.

Maggie felt that something should break the awkwardness so she came up with the only thing she could think of at that awful moment. “Huh, I really never saw Kara being the top in that relationship.”

Alex looked at her horrified, she caught movement over her shoulder and was about to reach for her weapon when two men in black, faces covered slipped out of the dark. 

Maggie seeing her girlfriends eye widen turned around to face the threat.

“Keep your hands still, do not move until instructed.”

Alex was toying with pulling her weapon anyway when a third voice came from right by her ear. 

“Move your hands slowly to the side, raise them above your head.”

“I fucking knew this was going to be a disaster. I fucking knew it!” Maggie yelled as she raised her hands.

Alex recognized the military positioning and her heart sank. This was Lena's fucking mini army and she was screwed. “OK, this isn't what it looks like. My name is Agent Alex Danvers, Lena asked me to test security. If you call her, she can clear this up.” She prayed that Lena would answer the damn phone only after she got up from her sisters face.

One of the men lowered his weapon and started to move his hands around, Alex realized they were signing to each other and could only hope she would get out of this without too much embarrassment. 

Whatever he said, the others seemed to agree, he pointed his weapon at her again. “We're going back down the way you came. Move slowly over to the rope, and slide down the building. Do not try anything, there is a man on the ground who will shoot you. Do you understand?”

Alex realized that the man behind her had already snuck away down a rope that she didn't hear him attach. Trust Lena to hire fucking ninjas. She walked to the rope and let her self down gently. Waiting at the bottom for Maggie. Halfway down she heard the man speak, assuming it was to call Lena and she prayed that this would be over shortly and no one would be any the wiser where on the roof they were.

****

Kara lay back, watching as Lena lowered herself onto Kara's face. When she got into the perfect position, Lena started to move her hips back and forth across Kara's open mouth. Kara looked upward and thought that if she died now, the afterlife would be a pale simulation. Lena's hands were buried in her own hair, holding it off her neck, her hips rolled in a steady rhythm, her mouth open as she breathed out the most wanton sounds Kara had ever heard. She reached her hands up and grasped Lena's hips encouraging her to lift every so often so Kara could take a breath.

Lena kept her rolling up, moans getting louder and louder, interspersed with Kara's name. Chanting over and over like a benediction. Kara had been referred to as God like before, but this was the first time she actually felt as if it applied. She moved her right hand away and brought it back with a slap to Lena's ass. The moaning increased in volume, so Kara did it again. She started a rhythm of her own, slapping down against Lena, gripping her hips to lift her off so she could breath, holding her in place until she ran out of breath and starting again.

“Kara, so close, so close.”

Kara pulled her down and sucked Lena's clit into her mouth, pulsing around it gently until Lena cried out her name one last time, her back rigid, grinding down onto Kara's mouth as the shudders wracked through her body. With a final groan, Lena fell to her side on the bed.

Before she had come back to her body the speaker system in the lab hissed into life.

“ _Twofer to Irish, sorry to interrupt boss, we've caught a couple of people breaking into your lab. Can you meet us outside?”_

“What the hell?” Kara looked around.

“Security system.” Lena scrambled off and looked around for her clothes.

“Irish?”

Lena blushed. “They said I was part of the team so I needed a nickname.”

Kara pressed the button for her Super suit. “That is so cute. C'mon, let's see which of Lillian's henchmen showed up this time.”

****

Lena dressed in jeans and and Kara's discarded shirt pulled tightly across her chest, walked out the front door behind Kara in her Super suit. They watched as her security team walked around the corner with Alex and Maggie in front, arms raised above their head.

Lena smirked. “Good job boys. Where did you catch them?”

Tucker pulled his mask below his mouth. “On the roof, lowest point. Over the training area.”

Lena raised her eyebrow wondering just how much they had seen. “What's in the bag?” She asked calmly. 

Gunner pulled out some ropes and a grappling gun. “Standard access gear. And a Stanford sweatshirt. Not sure what the point of that was.” He shrugged.

Alex blush could have lit up the neighbourhood, she looked at Lena and even in the dim light from her sign outside the building, she could see Lena's skin was covered in purple and red bite marks. The shirt barely stretched over her chest and the marks just kept going lower. She prayed on everything she held dear for an invasion.

“Thank you, enjoy the rest of your night. Breakfast is on me tomorrow.” Lena waved her team off.

As soon as they left, Maggie and Alex lowered their aching arms.

“OK, let me just say...”

Kara exploded. “You were on the roof? You saw us?”

Alex blushed even harder. “Oh I saw more than enough thank you!”

“And who's fault was that? What the hell Alex?”

Alex and Kara were now yelling at each other about decency, breaking and entering, commandeering DEO property, privacy and anything else that sprang to mind.

Maggie shook her head and walked over to an amused looking Lena.

“I want you to know, this was not my idea. But I gotta ask, how did you do that without hanging onto the headboard? That's some mad skills Lena.”

“Yoga. Honestly you don't realize just how much it strengthens the mid section. I've been neglecting it for a while with everything going on. You should come next time.”

“I might just do that. How long you think they are gonna be yelling at each other?”

“Quite a while I would think. Coffee?”

They walked into the lab leaving the sisters outside yelling.


	8. Stupid Grin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revenge is a dish best served cold.

**Chapter 8**

**Stupid Grin**

_You're gonna get it this time  
You'll regret it this time  
I'm gonna strike at the right time later _

_-Dragonette_

****

Kara woke gently when she felt something bouncing off her head. She screwed her face up in confusion before rolling over to snuggle up to Lena.

A very naked Lena.

Covered in a ton of bite marks. Kara cringed hoping they were easily covered. She kissed softly across the bare back in front of her hoping to wake her lover.

Her lover.

Lena loved her. She told her so last night. Kara grinned thinking about it. She had finally finished yelling at Alex then came back to the lab and Lena dragging her to the bedroom.

“ _Not really in the mood to start again right now. Really pissed at Alex. I am so sorry she did that.”_

“ _It's OK. I mean I would rather not have had her catching us in flagrante delicto, but at least she knows my security about you is serious. Come to bed, wanna cuddle you.” Lena whispered, dragging her the last steps into the small room of beds and boxes._

“ _I felt instantly back to normal when we switched the sex box off by the way. I guess we can proclaim that a win anyway.”_

“ _Hmm. No more talk about sex, too tired to go again.” Lena turned over and pulled Kara behind her to spoon._

“ _Thank you for giving me this, for finding a way to let me be with you, I mean really be with you. I would have dealt with a one sided intimacy just so you know, but this is better.”_

“ _Oh I haven't forgotten about your attempt at one sided intimacy, believe me. Prices to be paid and all.” Lena mumbled._

_Kara laughed quietly. “That I will happily pay. This is so much better though, thank you.” She kissed Lena's neck softly._

“ _No thanks needed. I love you, I was determined to find a way to be with you.”_

_Kara froze. “You love me? Like, love me. Like naked love me as opposed to just non naked love me?”_

_Lena turned her neck to look curiously at Kara's face. “I'm sorry, I forget to state the obvious sometimes. Kara, I've been in love with you for about a year I think.” She laughed. “My libido woke up with a vengeance when you first came to my office. But yeah, I think I've been in love with you for a year. You are my heart.” She whispered the last part into Kara's shocked face. She kissed her gently and turned around to sleep._

_Kara lay next to her, tears streaming down her face, smiling like an idiot._

She was about to wake Lena up properly when she felt something bounce of her head again. She looked up to find Tashtego and Queequeg sitting on the boxes near the end of the bed, throwing grapes at her. There were already half a dozen scattered around the bed and more on the floor so they had obviously been throwing them a while.

“What they heck monkeys?” She whispered, picking up a grape and throwing it back causing the larger of the two to screech at her.

Lena shot up in bed looking around in confusion. Kara chuckled at her bed hair. “Whas goin on? Who screamed?”

“Your monkey is throwing food at me. I think he wants us to get up.”

Lena lay back down. “I think he might be jealous, normally when I nap in here, they find their way in. I often wake up with the pair of them. It's kinda cute.”

Kara squeaked. “Oh my gosh, cuddle monkeys! Come cuddle monkeys. Come!” She made clicking noises and tried to get them to come and cuddle with her but clearly they were not having it. There was one more grape toss before they left in disgust causing Kara to whine.

“C'mon, we should get up anyway, Snapper wants your report on the new male superhero remember?”

Kara grimaced but moved to get up anyway.

They sorted themselves out for the day, Kara leaned over giving her a last kiss goodbye, promising to come and pick her up later as her car was still at home.

“Besides, we need to make sure the sex box works at your place. Maybe you should make a few so we don't have to carry it.” She called excitedly.

Lena waved her off with a smirk, promised she would look at it tomorrow, but today she had to find food and test out her water purifying device.

****

Lena sat on the floor handing out McDonalds breakfast boxes and coffee to the half dressed seals. Not her normal fare, but she had a feeling she wouldn't win any friends with healthy oatmeal cookies and smoothies with this bunch.

“So who were the two we stopped last night? You really ask them to test the security?” Twofer asked.

She waggled her hand. “Kind of. I have things in there that can hurt Supergirl, I wont hand them to the government on account of not trusting them.”

“Damn right.” Tucker spoke up. “They'll take the help from the Supers as long as it suits, but they wont hesitate to put them down when it suits either.”

“S'true.” Gunner said. “So who are these women then? They both government spooks?”

Lena took a bite of her breakfast burger and shook her head. “Maggie's a cop. Good people. She totally gets why I don't want the government to have things that can hurt Kara.”

“So who was the other one? She looked familiar. Is she the one that had us sign those NDA's?” Gunner asked her.

Tucker nodded. “That's right, she is. She was not happy when she had us sign those.” He chuckled.

“Yeah that's Alex. She's Kara's sister.” Lena told them.

“And she is OK with the spooks having stuff that can hurt her? Doesn't make sense.” Twofer spoke up.

“I think she's coming around to my way of thinking. She would do anything for Kara, literally anything, they are so close. But she trusts in the system and I am a bit more cynical.”

Ozzy started clapping like crazy making them all look over. He signed at Lena for a while, a giant grin on his face making the others burst out laughing.

Lena blushed. “Yes that was Kara's sister that saw me, um, _with_ , Kara as she tried to break in, yes.”

Ozzy started clapping again as the others laughed.

“Right, if we've finished enjoying ourselves at my expense. Let's go swimming!”

They filed out the door, not before all of them slapping Lena on the back by way of congratulations.

****

The black dingy was very loud considering the small engine attached to it. Lena found herself yelling over it to be heard.

“OK Tucker keep an eye on this one, we'll get this one set up and come back for the other.”

He nodded to her as the boat pulled out. They got about 50 yards out until the electrical cable ran it's length. Lena situated her mask, threw a thumbs up at Gunner and they both dropped back over the side into the water. Twofer rolled the machine over to the edge and dropped it in, Lena and Gunner helping guide it to the bottom of the water. When she got it in place, she fiddled with the controls until it was set up, Gunner holding a light over her to help. They both rose to the surface and held onto the side of the dingy as Twofer drove it back to the dock where Tucker stood.

He dropped it gently into the water and again Lena and Gunner swam down with it. There was a splash as Twofer dropped into the water as well. As Lena set the new machine up, Gunner and Twofer used a large underwater drill to attach the power source to the bricks of the dock underwater. When the power source was in place, cables draped out to the two large filters, Lena crawled on the water bed toward it. With her fingers crossed, she fired it up. Happy with the output, she crawled back to the second machine they dropped with the light in her hand. Nodding at what she saw, she swam up to the surface, grabbed on the side of the dingy as they drove her out to the furthest unit, a small yellow flag floating on the surface to show it's placement. She dropped down again, tweaked the controls and smiled around her mouth piece. She swam up, holding out her hand as the two seals dragged her into the boat and they headed into the dock.

“Did it work Irish?” Tucker called out as they climbed up the stairs of the dock.

She nodded happily. “It did, now we just wait and see. I want to come out every 3 or 4 days to check the numbers, but if it works as it should, we should actually see a difference between the water colours.”

They bid each other goodbye as the seals took the boat back to the house they had decided to stay at and Lena walked wetly back to the lab, surprised to see Alex waiting for her, possibly with a large coffee. That was a good sign at least.

She pulled off her black swim hood shaking her mildly damp hair out and squelched over. “Good morning.” She smiled.

“You really are full of surprises. Dare I ask what you are doing in the water?” Alex held out the coffee to her.

“Prototypes. I got the mayors blessing to try them here. They should filter the water, encourage fish back, birds, that kind of thing. When the water is clear, I'm hoping it will increase visitors, tourism etc. I need to talk to Kara about advertising, I want to hold a competition to get divers in to clean the water of trash, glass, make it so people can swim in it safely. I think I saw a bicycle down there.” She shook her head in surprise. “The main use will be for outlying areas that struggle for clean water. Poorer countries mostly. I have a plan in place to sell the production to the Arabian countries where fresh water is hard to come by in many places, in return, they are going to provide a number of units at cost to countries in Africa.”

Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise. “That must be worth a fortune to your new company.”

“No, I'm selling the plans in return for cheap supply to Africa, there isn't a cash line for me in it.” She shrugged as she walked into the lab leaving a confused Alex to follow her.

“I don't think I know many companies that work for free.” She scoffed.

“Well, now you do.” Lena smiled at her. “So what brings you down Alex?” She began stripping off the wet suit off of her top half making Alex swiftly look away. “Bit late for that don't you think?” Lena teased her.

Alex sighed. “I asked for that I guess.”

Lena hummed to herself. When she was dressed in a sweatshirt and some loose pants, she sat down with her coffee. “So, not that I don't appreciate free coffee...”

Alex took a deep breath. “So! Last night. In fairness, you did challenge me to break in, and you both have perfectly usable apartments, how was I supposed to know you would be doing, that, in your lab. Anyway, Kara said I owed you an apology.” She finished.

“Ah ha, well do let me know when you get to it.” Lena left her piercing gaze on Alex.

“Fine. I apologize for disturbing you getting it on with my baby sister.” Alex snapped.

“Almost there.” Lena smirked.

“I brought you coffee!” Alex whined.

Lena chuckled and stood up. “As it goes, your laser wouldn't have cut through the glass, you would need an industrial sized one and as you know now, you can not bypass the security at the entrance. So let me show you what else you can not do.” She pressed some keys on her computer to initiate shut down.

Alex watched in amazement at the floors rose to the ceiling out of reach. The computer station dropped into the floor and a large cement block covered it. She led Alex over to the back wall near the kitchen. As the computer was finally hidden, the wall slid back showing a small elevator that she pulled Alex in with her. She put her hand on the security pad and leaned forward for an eye scan. The elevator moved down as the wall slid closed behind them. When they reached the bottom, they walked into Lena's control room, secondary computer still rising and coming to life. The screens flickered for a moment before displaying cameras pointing all over the lab. She sat down and pointed to the vault behind her. “And that, is where I hide things that I do not want the government to know about.”

Alex looked at the vault. “So if you try to blow it..”

“A secondary system sets in putting up a 2 foot thick solid metal wall behind it. No one is getting in there Alex. At any given point I have at least one pair of eyes on the building and if anyone tampers with the main locks, an alert is sent to me along with a visual image of what is happening. I venture it's as secure as the DEO from attack.”

Alex nodded clearly impressed. “So, truce then?” She held out her hand.

Lena smiled and took it.

When they made it back upstairs, the lab was reassembling itself. Lena walked to her desk drawer and pulled out some notes handing them over to Alex.

“What are these?”

“Lex has three last stashes, this is the smaller one, you'll have to hit them at the same time. Some of your team can handle that one on their own, on the condition that my team go with them, these two will be harder. You are going to want to take Superman for one and Supergirl for the other.”

“And you are giving them to me just like that?” Alex cocked her head at Lena.

“I want your word, that any Kryptonite or anything that can harm the Supers you give to my team or Kara or Clark. This is non negotiable and our tentative truce hangs on your answer.”

Alex looked at Lena, there really was nothing she had left to think she was a threat to Kara. She nodded. “Alright, I agree. Anything else?”

Lena walked over to the large tree and called her companions down. When she had one in each arm, she walked them back to Alex who tried very hard not to melt at the little faces looking nervously at her. “One other thing. Should I need a monkey vet?” She left the question hanging.

Alex took the peanuts that Lena offered her, holding them out, she quickly found her arms full with a chubby squirrel monkey. She grinned automatically as she fed him. “I think I can help with that.”

The phone rang interrupting their moment. Lena answered it on speakerphone to a woman in the background howling with laughter. They looked at each other in concern before a deep male voice came on the line.

“Ms Luthor, it's Super... it's Clark, Clark Kent. And obviously you can hear Lois.” He sighed.

Alex eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

“Mr Kent, how can I help you?” She smiled.

“I wanted to thank you personally. Lois told me that she came to see you and you had the suit ready to go already. She suggested that I might have been too proud to ask for myself.”

Lena smirked. “She did mention that, yes. I trust there are no problems with it Mr Kent?”

The woman laughing increased in volume and Alex though she could hear the words _pink, fucking pink, oh my God I just cant._

“Well Ms Luthor, nothing wrong, technologically, but I was hoping if I swallowed my pride to say thank you, you might fix the colours?”

“Ah, I take it the pink doesn't agree with you?”

There was a small masculine laugh on the phone. “I think having the original blue and red might make my job easier.”

Lena laughed. She pushed some buttons on her computer and after a few seconds a sigh of relief sounded over the phone and the manic laughter stopped. “Is that better?”

“Much better, thank you Ms Luthor. Lena. Thank you very much.”

“You're very welcome Clark. Let me know if you have any problems with it. Keep in mind this is the first draft so watch for any potential problems and let me know as soon as you find anything.”

They finished the call cordially and Alex laughed. “That explains a lot.” At Lena's odd look she continued. “I tried to draft him into helping us break in, he actually laughed when he said no. I'm guessing you made him a copy of Kara's new suit?”

Lena nodded. “I programmed it to be pink, little humility would do Clark the world of good sometimes. Lois clearly agreed.”

Alex ear piece went off. “I have to go, we have another sighting of this new would be superhero again.” She handed the monkey off to Lena and grabbed her stuff. “I'll let you know when we raid these places so make sure your guys are ready to go. And I give you my word, I will let the Supers take anything they deem too dangerous.”

“One last thing, Kara hates training with your Kryptonite room. I made a working red sun box. You are welcome to train her here, but I wont let it leave the building.”

“You made one? That quickly?”

Lena blushed. “I had incentive.”

Alex groaned. “Fair enough. Can I borrow your ninjas as well?” She snarked.

“Absolutely, I think they would enjoy that.”

****

James ran as fast as he could around the maze of back alleys. Alex had fired a lucky shot of her electrical weapon that had shorted some of his gear out. He no longer had assistance with speed and he couldn't jump. He ran on fear that they would catch him and he would have to explain to Alex and the others what he was doing. He turned a corner to a three way junction, looking for a place to hide knowing that it was only seconds away from Supergirl in the skies looking for him. He was about to run left when a large brown postal delivery van pulled up. The door slid open and a man looking totally out of place, dressed in an expensive suit looked at him.

“Mr Olsen, get in, quickly.”

James took a step back. How did this person know who he was when the DEO didn't.

“You don't have time. I have a lead lined blanket, the DEO will be here in minutes, Supergirl even less so. Please. Get in.”

James decided he had nothing to lose. He jumped in the back, sat down between the boxes and let the man cover him in the blanket. Within seconds they were driving off out of the area. Hidden to anyone looking for him.

About 15 minutes later, the van door was opened and James crawled out from under the blanket. He was surprised to find himself at his house. The driver and the man in the front started taking the boxes up to his apartment. The man in the suit pulled him quickly inside to avoid being seen.

“Who are you? Why are you helping me?” James asked when he got inside.

“Let's just say that we are a group of concerned citizens that realize the police are ill equipped to deal with current situations and would rather not have to rely on the good will of aliens to keep us safe. A concerned group with deep pockets and influence. These boxes contain equipment to help you avoid dealing with what happened today.”

James looked at the half dozen boxes the drivers had brought up. Plain, no markings. “And what do you want in return?” He asked suspiciously.

The man in the suit shrugged. “There may be occasion we ask you to clean up certain areas, areas that are rife with drugs and violence. Areas too close to schools and playgrounds. Nothing that I think would trouble you.” He walked toward the door leaving James to look at the boxes. “Good luck Mr Olsen.”

James opened the first box and his eyes widened. This was better than the gear they had confiscated at the DEO. This would make him unstoppable.

****

“Shit! I don't see him, he could have gone down any of these alleys. Supergirl you have anything?” Alex huffed out, her breathing shallow.

“I got nothing. Couple of vehicles moving around, but nothing suspicious in any of them.”

Alex put her hands on her waist, clearly winded. “OK, everyone back to base. We can check the video footage, see if there is anything to go on there. Ungh, this guy is gonna get someone killed. I mean sure, he stopped a drug deal, but look at the state of the place! Looks like a bomb went off. OK, back to base. Alex out.”

“I have to get to CatCo, ironically I need to hand in a report about our new 'superhero' if you can believe it. I'll catch up with you later. Supergirl out!”

Kara landed around the corner from CatCo, deactivating her suit, she headed to the entrance, planning her story out as she went.

With no one looking, she sped through her article, printed it out and headed into Snappers office.

“There you go, one article. I got some feedback from a source about what happened this morning and news on the FBI chasing him down.” She looked behind her surprised to see James sat there.

“And what's your opinion on our new superhero?” He asked.

“I think he is dangerous, I think he is either going to get hurt or hurt someone else.”

Snapper handed the article back. “Too much bias. Rewrite it.”

Kara looked at him. Rewrite it as what? That is exactly what happened. He stopped a drug deal and caused massive amounts of damage and two innocent bystanders were hurt. How do I rewrite that?”

“The people of National City feel safer knowing that one of their own is looking out for them, we don't want to appear unsympathetic to that. So rewrite it. No one really got hurt, so it doesn't matter.” Snapper said casually.

“And the massive damage to property? Shall we leave that out as well?” Kara snapped, surprising herself.

James shrugged. “It's insured. Do we always talk about the damage Supergirl leaves behind?”

Kara was furious. “Uh, yeah, we do. And we also cover how the city pays for it.”

“Using tax dollars!” Snapper broke in again and Kara was horrified to see James nod in agreement.

Before she could formulate a response she heard James speak again. “Ms Luthor. How can I help you?”

Kara whirled around to see Lena standing there, her smile somewhat awkward as though she could feel the tension in the room. Kara was more aware that Lena was dressed like she used to when she was at L-Corp, full CEO boss bitch complete with that red lipstick and heels that put her taller than Kara. She felt some of her tension drop and settle into more interesting areas.

“Actually I just dropped by to see if Kara was free for lunch.”

Kara smiled at her. “Sure. I just need to rewrite an article extolling the virtues of our new human saviour.”

“Don't like it, go back to fetching coffee, seems like you were good at that at least.” Snapper laughed.

Lena pulled Kara away before she could respond. “C'mon. Soon as you get it done, soon as we can get some fresh air.” She looked pointedly at both Snapper and James who at least had the decency to looked awkward.

“God damn alien lovers.” Snapper muttered as they walked away.

This time it was Lena who stopped. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me. If your family put more effort into killing the aliens rather than the humans it took as collateral damage, we wouldn't need a God damn alien flying around the skies. She's only here because of the Luthors so you'll forgive me for not caring if I hurt the feelings of a mass murderer.”

James stood up to intervene, obviously Snapper had more anti alien sentiment than he realized. “Perhaps we should all step back and sort the article later. Once cooler heads...”

Kara was in Snappers face before anyone saw her move. “Don't you ever fucking talk about her like that again. She is nothing like her family and she is worth a thousand of you.” She poked him in the chest to make her point.

James froze, he couldn't remember ever hearing Kara curse, Snapper didn't recognize the angry woman in front of him from the usually bouncy ray of perpetual sunshine. Lena stood in front of Kara, talking softly as though dealing with a highly sprung coil that could bounce off at any second. “He isn't worth it darling. C'mon, not here, not like this. Come with me.” She took Kara's hand and watched pleased as Kara came back to earth and followed her out.

James stood at the door, caught between his friend and the woman that had taken her. “Kara I think you should take a few days off. Let things calm down. I'll have someone else do the article, just, go and relax a bit OK?”

Kara glared at him and continued to walk out with Lena.

“C'mon, let's go and buy a ridiculous amount of pot stickers, hmm?”

Kara nodded shyly at her and let herself be led out of the building.

James watched them leave, Snapper was still ranting at his desk. “She's fired, I didn't want her here to start.”

James sighed. “Kara isn't being fired. Just, don't give her anymore articles about The Guardian.”

Snapper opened his mouth to refute it but James shook his head. “She isn't fired. That's the end of it.” He walked back to his office.

****

“Want me to order some more? Not sure they have any more, but we can ask.” Lena smiled as Kara leaned back in her seat and opened her jeans to be able to breath easily.

“I cant eat another thing. Really. I am stuffed. How many did we eat?” She looked around the table in embarrassment at the giant pile of plates on the table. “Did we eat all those?”

Lena laughed. “Yes, _we_ did.”

Kara blushed. “Why are you all office CEO'd up? You never wear your red lipstick and I cant remember the last time I saw your hair up.”

“Ah, well I have some shopping to do this afternoon, this was more suited to what I need. I was going to go this evening when you were free, but seeing as you have some time, besides it will take your mind off things.”

Kara scoffed. “I doubt anything can distract me right now. I'm so angry with Snapper, how dare he speak to you like that? And I know James and I are having a difference of opinion, but he didn't say a word. So tired of it. He's a butt.” She crossed her arms and pouted.

Lena thought the difference between Kara cursing out Snapper and calling James a butt was so on point for her little alien. She reached over to Kara, took her hands and smiled. “Come shopping with me, I promise you will be distracted in no time at all.”

Kara looked at her cynically. “Promise?”

Lena looked at her giving Kara the full effect of her sexiest smirk. “I can guarantee it.”

****

“Um, what is this place?” Kara stuttered.

Lena stood with her hand on the door about to enter the dark store. “Hmm?”

Kara grabbed her hand. “Lena!” She hissed. “We cant go in there!”

Lena reached over, pulling Kara into her arms, her heels giving her the extra height to whisper directly into Kara's ear. “ _Baby, when this machine is built, I'm gonna fuck you raw and after that, when you can walk in a straight line, I will happily deal with any and all paybacks and retributions you feel are needed._ ”

Kara groaned.

“Those were your words were they not? Or did I mis-quote you?”

Kara straightened her back. “Fine. I can do this. I'll just say it was for an article I was writing.”

Lena had no idea who Kara was planning to say that to but she walked in anyway with a rigid Kara following her.

“It's just a sex shop. People go to them all the time. There are worse paybacks right?” Kara said to herself under her breath.

Lena smiled as the door closed. There are definitely worse paybacks.

“Good afternoon ladies, anything I can help you find?” The woman spoke from behind the counter.

“No! We're good! Thank you!” Kara said loudly making Lena laugh and the woman raise her eyebrows.

“Actually, we're looking for a strap on, aren't we darling?” Lena reached around Kara putting her arm around her waist and pulling her forward.

Kara squeaked.

Lena brazenly looked at the woman before she spoke, sealing Kara's doom. “You must forgive her. Tiger in the bedroom, turns into a kitten outside.”

The woman laughed. “It's always the quiet ones isn't it? We have great selection over here.” She led them toward the back of the shop.

Kara looked around at the many pieces of clothing hanging up on racks from the ceiling. They reminded her of that scene in Kill Bill with the gimp. She shuddered hoping they could just buy the strap on and leave before Lena wanted her to try things on. Hoping that even Lena wouldn't be that petty she caught up to them and heard the tail end of the conversation.

“So your partner can actually feel it while they penetrate you.”

“That's amazing, Kara look at this!”

Kara looked at what Lena was holding in her hand and tried to look anywhere else.

“Should we get this one do you think?” Lena approached her.

“Yep, yep let's get that one. K, let's go pay!” Kara tried to move away.

“No, no, no. We need to make sure it's the right one. What do you think of the length? Do you prefer length or girth, or somewhere in-between?” Lena grinned at her.

Kara tapped her ear peace, hoping to hear Alex calling for help. She felt Lena's hand take hers.

“I told Alex you would be unavailable for an hour.”

An hour! A whole hour! Kara wasn't going to last an hour with Lena doing this. Oh God she had the, thing, in her hand, that just touched Kara. Oh God, oh God. Kara started to hyperventilate.

“Just breath darling, I know it can be exciting, but, pace yourself. I know you can do that. Remember last night? You wouldn't let me come, you just kept saying patience, Lena.”

Kara whipped her eyes to the sales woman hoping she was just out of earshot. “Lena.” She warned.

Her threats were in vain. Lena's eyes were sparkling in a way that Kara knew meant she was having far too much fun. Kara sighed. She was doomed.

“OK, I think we both agree that this one is fine. Is this one that lets you swap the front dildo out?” Lena causally asked the woman.

Kara groaned quietly.

“It is! They nearly all do now. That's one of the newer ones so it doesn't have quite the range of the others, but we do have some more attachments here.” She walked them toward another section.

Attachments? What was it, a sex toy or a vacuum cleaner? Kara just wanted to go home.

“We need a smaller one, slimmer as well. Don't we darling?”

Kara looked up, praying she could just nod rather than open her mouth. “We do?” As embarrassed as she was, it didn't make sense to get something small.

“Of course, we cant use that one for anal sex, far too big.”

Kara manically started tapping her ear comms again.

Alex voice came over the line. _“Kara? I thought you were off comms?”_

“You remember, you said you were surprised at the amount of pages in the Karma Sutra that covered anal sex, you said it must be good so we should definitely try it.” Lena smiled at her again.

“ _OK, hanging up now.”_

“Alex wait!”

“ _Nope, bye, love you, never speak to me again.”_ And the line cut out.

The infernal woman came back over with a small glass attachment. “These are super popular, not as pliable so you have to be careful, but these little ridges will blow your mind!” She grinned.

“Excellent, we'll take it.” Lena said happily.

Kara was in hell.

“I think that's all we need. Sweetheart? Anything you can think of? Anything you want to try?”

Kara shook her head mutely and prayed it was nearly over.

When they stood at the counter to pay, just as Kara thought she was nearly free and clear, Lena's voice cut through her panic again.

“Oh, do you have any Aloe Vera? Or some kind of soothing gel?”

The woman scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.

“Why?” Kara asked her, knowing she would regret it but her curiosity always got the better of her.

“I believe your exact phrase was 'wanna spank that ass red' so I thought we should get something just in case. I'm going to need to sit down at some point.” She smirked.

“Ah! Yes, we have this, it works as both as an icy lubricant and you can use it to cool things down.” She laughed.

Kara gritted her teeth and whispered. “I swear to Rao, if you buy that, you're gonna need it.”

Lena smiled. “Excellent, we'll take two!”

“I'm writing an article!” Kara suddenly yelled.

The woman just looked at her as Lena laughed.

Purchases in hand, they left the store.

Kara stood outside soaking the sunlight in, finally feeling like she could breath. She looked at Lena holding her black bag of purchases and decided that now it was over, it was time for some payback of her own. “Your place or mine?” She grinned.

Lena looked at her. “Oh, sorry darling, I have to get those numbers ready for my water project. But I should be home later tonight?”

Kara looked at her sharply. If Lena thought she was going to put her through that and not put out afterwards she was in for a rude awakening. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and activated the bracelet that brought her Super suit out. “Ms Luthor, I believe your life is in danger, I'm going to need you to come with me.” She said seriously.

Lena looked around, assuming that Alex had spoken in Kara's earpiece again. “Danger? From whom?”

Kara scooped her up bridal style and flew upwards. “Me. If you're not naked in 5 minutes I'm gonna kill you myself.”

Lena laughed and held on for the short ride to her apartment.

****

  
  



	9. Fetish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, the next part is plot line and important and it's possible no one will be paying attention so I figured I would post this separately.
> 
> Thanks to Wispr for a boat load of lovely feedback. She ensured this was written today. Which being as it is mostly sex, probably sounds really creepy. Sorry about that.

** Fetish  **

_Pain turns to pleasure fast  
Relax, while I pound your ass  
Cool cat, cool cat, come on I'll give you some  
Oh, yea, gonna, I'm gonna watch you come_

_ -J Jett _

****

Lena had never been so glad her windows were reinforced and unlocked. Kara had the good sense to turn at the last minute and take the impact on her body, but Lena felt the shock waves through Kara's body into hers. 

Kissing Kara while she flew was exhilarating, but apparently interfered with Kara's internal GPS, this was not the first balcony they had flown into.

“Bedroom, over there, bedroom.” Lena rushed her words into Kara's ear. 

Kara used her super speed to get them there faster nearly taking out the bedroom door frame. “Shoot, sorry, sex box? Where is sex box?” Kara panted.

Lena started laughing as Kara put her down. “Where is sex box?”

“Hush, you know what I mean. Tell me you have it here, I really don't trust myself to fly across town right now to find it.”

“Quite safe, I made another one. Nothing quite ruins spontaneity like having your neck broken when you go down on your Kryptonian girlfriend.” Lena quipped. She walked over to the wall socket and plugged it in, just as Kara made to deactivate her suit. 

“Did you want me to leave the suit on?” 

Lena took her time looking Kara up and down before she answered. “Not right now, it's going to be distracting enough to see you wearing the harness.”

Kara pressed the button to lose the suit and started ripping at the packaging with her teeth, getting nowhere. “Shit, turn it off. Turn the sex box off so I can get this stupid thing open.”

Lena started laughing and walked back over, kissing Kara's neck from behind. “We lowly humans have to deal with this kind of thing, be good for you to exercise some patience.” She moved her hands up under Kara's sweater to take it off. There was a moment of mayhem when the sweater caught on the strap on packaging and Kara let out a whimper of frustration.

There was a loud crunching sound as Kara finally got the strap on out of it's plastic container. “Look at all these buckles, you'll need a degree in engineering to get the thing attached!”

Lena took it from her hands and dropped it to the bed. “Well firstly, you need to be wearing less.” 

Kara was now having the same struggle with her pants as she had with the impenetrable plastic. “Damn it, why cant pants use Velcro?”

Lena laughed and moved her hands away. She kissed Kara gently at first, then deeper and she felt Kara calm down. Breaking off with kisses around her face, she whispered into her ear. “Calm down, we have plenty of time, everyone thinks you're at work, no one is going to interrupt us.” 

Kara ran her hands over Lena's body, the rhythm helping to calm her down. She felt her pants dropping to floor quickly followed by her underwear. Lena reached over to the bed and grabbed the leather harness, she looked at it for a second as Kara took her shirt and sports bra off. She figured out which way everything went and placed the vibrating attachment into the small pocket area by the crotch. Snapping in the purple cock into the front ring, she made sure the metal conductors lined up and squeezed gently.

There was a gasp above her as Lena lifted her eyes to an astounded looking Kara. “Did you feel that?”

“That's amazing!” She spoke breathlessly as she looked down at the strange appendage sticking out of her groin. She smiled kind of dorkily at Lena sitting fully dressed on the bed. “This is gonna be rad.”

Lena shook her head at her ridiculous girlfriend who used words like rad when discussing the latest technological marvels of fake penises. She took her shirt off leaving her in a purple laced bra. 

“Did you buy a strap on that matched your underwear on purpose?” Kara giggled.

Lena rolled her eyes, Kara was clearly missing the point of strap ons and had reached the giggling stage of having a silicone toy sticking out of her. She thought the easiest way to fix that would be to reboot Kara's brain. “I did actually, I thought, what if Kara wants to thrust her dick between my tits to see how it feels, best we are aesthetically suitable.”

As expected, Kara rebooted. “We can do... How does... That wasn't in my research.”

“Glad to see I can surprise you. Talking of surprises, was this in your book?” Lena dropped from the bed to her knees in front of Kara. She took the purple toy gently in her hand, squeezing just enough to get Kara's attention. With a flick of her hair to put it behind her shoulder and give Kara the best view, she lowered her mouth and sucked firmly on the tip.

“Oh holy Rao, oh fuck, fuck, no, not in the book. Oh Rao, again. Do that again.” Kara instantly ran her hands into Lena's hair, holding it back.

Lena looked up, waiting for Kara to look down. When she did, Lena opened her mouth wider and took Kara fully inside.

“Oh my Rao, we could have been doing this for a year! Why didn't you tell me we could have been doing this for a year!”

Lena tried not to laugh. She pulled the cock out of her mouth, being sure to leave the visual of a string of saliva connecting her to Kara. “Tell me how it feels.” She husked out before going back to what she was doing.

“I can feel it, like every time you go deeper...”

Lena relaxed her gag reflex and took Kara all the way inside.

“Fuck, like that. I can feel it shoot through my body, like my nerves are tingling. Fuck I wanna come in your mouth.” She started thrusting gently back and forth. “Is this OK? Can I do this?”

Lena looked up and winked at her. She kept her head still and moved Kara's hips with her hands until she got the message. 

“Thank you, fuck, thank you, fuck you are so awesome. So awesome. Wanna fuck your mouth baby.” She began thrusting harder feeling the sensation all the way down to her core. “Tell me if it's too much OK?” Before Lena had a chance to nod, Kara was thrusting with enthusiasm. Both hands on the back of Lena's head. Lena was breathing softly through her nose so as not to interrupt. “Gonna come, Rao this is insane. M' gonna come in your mouth.” She swiped her thumbs across Lena's cheeks to get her attention. “Can I come in your mouth baby?”

Lena moaned by way of an answer and that was all Kara needed. She jerked a couple of times, stiffening, her hips pressed fully against Lena's lips.

She pulled out slowly, groaning as she fell on to the bed gracelessly, a tangle of limbs with her ass in the air. “I love you. I really fucking love you.” 

Lena rolled her eyes as she wiped her mouth and grabbed a bottle of water. “Typical, give them a cock for 2 minutes and they think they are a God. One blow job and they are declaring their love for you.”

Kara laughed sweetly. She rolled over so she could look up at Lena. “Sit on my face and I might put a ring on it next.”

Lena burst out laughing. “Who are you and what did you do with my sweet innocent Kara?”

“Kara is still standing outside the sex shop utterly mortified at what you put her through. Kara Zor El however wants to ride you like a Disney attraction.” Her eyes darkened as Lena started to remove her skirt leaving her in the purple matching underwear. She was about to step out of her heels when Kara grabbed her pulling her down to the bed. She rolled them over until she was on top. “Can you leave the heels on?”

Lena smirked. “Aren't you just full of surprises?”

“I did an awful lot of research.” She pulled the straps of the purple bra down leaving Lena's breasts bare. She leaned down and sucked one of the nipples into her mouth roughly as Lena groaned, pulling the back of her head to encourage her. “Part of that research was identifying what I liked, sexually. So when I was breaking my bed at home, I thought about all the things about you that turned me on. I've always been aroused by your business persona, the way you can shut people up with just a look, how put together you are and I would get off thinking about you dressed like that while I fucked you into losing your control.” She sat back up, pulling Lena's legs up and over her shoulders, ripping the purple underwear right off her as she buried her face between Lena's thighs.

“Jesus fucking Christ Kara.” Lena reached her arms out to the side and gripped the sheets as Kara showed off her eating habits. She tried really hard to keep her eyes open to watch Kara, when it was obvious Kara was in her own little world she just lay back and enjoyed the ride. Kara had clearly learned where to press her buttons so it wasn't long before she was coming loudly. As her hips dropped back to the bed, before she could even comment, Kara was practically folding her in half, she felt the tip of the silicone lining up and watched as Kara's eyes rolled back as she entered her in one swift push.

“This. This is what I wanted.” Kara breathed out. “Are you OK? Is it comfortable? Can you breath OK?”

Lena nodded frantically. “Yes, so good, breathing fine, go, go, please.”

And that was all Kara needed to hear as she began pounding into the woman below her like an energizer bunny with too much Mountain Dew in it's battery pack.

Lena had never thought of herself as a pillow queen, but there wasn't much she could contribute at the moment as Kara steadily and powerfully thrust into her. There was actual sweat forming on the Kryptonians face between the effort of holding herself up on her arms and holding Lena's legs up over her shoulders and the effort of pushing her hips back and forward.

“Feels so good Lena, being inside you. I can feel you, every time I move I can feel you.”

Lena put her internal muscles to work, squeezing around the toy. “You feel that as well?”

“Fuck, yes, do that again. Please do that again.”

Lena obliged and Kara stopped moving just to feel it. She was about to do it a third time when Kara quite literally pulled out and threw her face down, pulling her hips back up in the air and entering her from behind.

“Is that OK?” Kara asked quietly.

Lena groaned. “Kara I love that you take consent seriously, but can we just have a blanket agreement that you can do whatever, whenever right now, just don't fucking stop.”

Kara took her at her word. She leaned over holding Lena by the neck, pressed into the mattress and she kept one hand on her hip to hold herself up and began driving in earnest.

“You like that?” She asked roughly, her breath coming in spurts. “You like bending over for me?”

Lena felt the weight of Kara holding her head down, taking what she wanted. “Yes. Yes, please, don't stop. Kara, don't stop.”

“Oh I'm just getting started. I may not have all my superpowers but I'm still not human. I could fuck you all night and not get tired.”

Part of Lena wanted to goad her, tell her to prove it, but she didn't think she would survive the night. Pondering if this was an acceptable way to die and how her eulogy might explain it she was sorely tempted. Instead she let her legs fall open wider to give Kara better access.

Kara took her hand off of Lena's neck to put both hands on her ass, spreading her wide open, the loud slapping sound as she smashed against Lena, the lewd noise of how wet Lena was for her kept her going. She ran her thumb from where her cock was sliding effortless into Lena, up to her ass, pressing gently. “Are you really gonna let me fuck your ass?”

Lena looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Let you? You keep it up and I'm gonna beg you to fuck my ass.” She winked at her and Kara's brain short circuited again. Lena grabbed the other package that was thankfully easier to open and threw it in the rough direction of her suddenly muted lover. “Use the lube and remember it's solid not flexible so start gently.”

Kara fumbled with the packaging, grabbing the free lube that came with the purchases thinking Lena may not appreciate an icy surprise in her ass, she took the purple silicone off and snapped the glass in it's place. Having no idea how much lube to use, she ended up getting it every where. Normally this would make her laugh, but seeing Lena still spread wide open, pink and swollen from where Kara had been fucking her, knowing what she was about to let her do, she tried not to short circuit again and she lined herself up and gently pressed inside.

Lena's moans were utterly pornographic in nature so Kara kept listening to make sure she was comfortable. When she had gone in as far as she could, her hips pressing against the soft skin of her lover, she waited. “That feel OK? Can I move?”

Lena didn't trust herself to be able to speak right now so she just nodded and whispered for Kara to start slow.

Kara put her hands underneath Lena's shoulders and pulled with all her strength to move her upwards so she was sat in Kara's lap, the glass toy buried in her ass. She held her against her chest, her hands pulling at her nipples, twisting gently, pulling them the way she knew that Lena liked. She moved one hand down over her stomach toward her clit where she circled her fingers. “Can you move your hips, you can set the speed then.”

Lena lifted herself using her thighs thanking any deity listening that she made the effort at the gym to work out. She rose up and slid back down. The woman at the sex store had not been kidding, the ridges on the glass attachment were insane. She grunted with each gentle lift and return, feeling Kara's breath on her neck, panting, whispering obscenities.

“You feel so good on my cock, I can feel it inside of you, every time you move I can feel what it does to you. You like me fucking your ass like this? We need to get another one, something bigger that I can move safely. You like that idea? Want some bigger in your ass when I fuck it?”

Lena could only keep saying yes. Any other words or formation of words in a string of a cognitive sentence had long been abandoned. 

“You gonna come for me baby? Gonna come with my cock in your ass?” Kara was groaning into her neck, wet open mouthed kissing leaving a string of marks on Lena's pristine skin. “I like marking you, want people to know you're mine. I'm the one that gets to fuck you, I'm the one that makes you feel like this. Mine.” She bit down again and that was it for Lena, her brain couldn't even form the words yes anymore, she moved her hips back and forth and hoped Kara got the gist of her agreeing.

Kara stopped her moving, keeping her in limbo. “Don't move, stay there for one second.” Kara disconnected the glass attachment but rather than removing it, she slid it back inside Lena's ass. She grabbed the purple silicone and snapped it back into place. Pushing Lena forward so she was back on all fours, she entered her again making Lena cry out in pleasure. She pushed her hips back and forth, every few strokes pulling the glass out and sliding it back in. “Gonna make you come so hard now.”

She reached around Lena's thigh with her other hand and began stroking her clit. Keeping herself upright with sheer brute strength, balancing herself on the side of Lena's ass she fucked her into oblivion. 

Lena thought she would cry when Kara stilled her hips, until she heard the click of the glass released and the silicone attached and she realised what her imaginative lover had in mind. When Kara pushed her forward and entered her a second time, she was writhing around on the sheets, pushing her breasts against the sheets, dragging her body along to get friction. When Kara started rubbing her clit, telling her she was gonna make her come hard, she felt the tell tale rise of her orgasm, she reached back blindly, desperate to pull Kara closer to her when it hit her like a wave of nothing she had ever felt before. She cried out in pleasure, certain that she called Kara's name among her unintelligible babbling. Vaguely aware of Kara stilling, pressed as hard against her as she could get, calling out to her God as she came with her.

She honest to goodness passed out. Never in her life had she passed out during orgasm. The next thing she knew was coming around to Kara gently pulling herself free, yanking at the harness and dropping everything on the floor before falling on top of Lena's sweat adorned back.

She felt Kara smiling into her skin before she heard her whisper. “Now that I would put a ring on it for.”

Pulling Kara to lay down beside her, she dozed off, sore and content.

****

Lena was sat upright in bed sipping from her water, picking at the food that Kara had brought in, the sheets pulled up to cover her.

“That was OK right?” Kara spoke softly from opposite, wearing Lena's shirt, the first thing she could reach for her trip to the fridge.

“Kara I'm letting you have food in my bed, right now I'm thinking about how much paperwork it would take to sign my company over to you so I could spend the rest of my life as your sugar baby.”

Kara burst out laughing. “Maybe we should get through some more of my research first.”

“Hmm, maybe. I'll think about it. Often.”

Kara started playing with the sheet under her fingers, the little knot in her forehead that meant she was thinking about how to phrase something.

Lena debated waiting, but decided with Kara sometimes it was best to just jump in rather than letting her work herself up. Especially after what they just did, she didn't want Kara thinking there was a problem with it. “Whats going on behind those beautiful eyes of yours.” She asked gently.

“Are we exclusive? On Krypton it was kind of a given, but apparently you have to ask on earth. So, um, can it just be you and me?”

Lena smiled, leaned over and ran her hand over Kara's face. “The minute you walked into my office, it was only ever you and me sweet girl.”

Kara beamed at her, the full weight of the sun behind her smile.

“Besides, as corny as it sounds, I believe you have utterly ruined me for anyone else.”

Kara kissed the palm of the hand on her face. “No one could ruin you. You're perfect.”

Lena moaned. “God, the things you say to me. I sometimes cant believe you're real. You are undeniably the most beautiful person I have ever known.”

Kara blushed and went back to scarfing the food. “So, I meant to ask you before we got sidetracked. Seeing as I might be fired now, can I come to your lab and make something?”

“You're not fired. You're too good and James, whilst being a complete dick right now, loves you too much to do that to you. What did you want to make?”

“Um, an anti tracking device. Like if something has a tracker in it, and you cant just pull it out, maybe I can fritz it instead so it doesn't work.”

Lena shifted around to look at her curiously. “Who's being tracked?”

Kara blushed. “Not so much who, as more, well, what. See I got so upset reading your book that you gave me, that I might have, kinda, possibly, rescued some killer whales from SeaWorld and Alex found out cause they have trackers and what if SeaWorld finds them again? They might take them back and Lena they shouldn't be there, those places are so small it's cruel. So I wanted to do it again, maybe some dolphins as well, but I need to get rid of the trackers.”

Lena burst out laughing to the point she could barely breath. “That was you? I saw that on the news, it never occurred to me that was you!” She carried on laughing as though this was the best news she had ever heard. “You sweet, beautiful alien. I absolutely adore you.” She leaned over the plate of cheese, salami, fruit and crackers that Kara had thoughtfully brought in and kissed her.

“Does that mean you'll help?” Kara looked up hopefully.

“Consider me team freedom!” Lena clapped. “What was it like? How did you lift them? Weren't you afraid to drop them? Did they wiggle a lot?”

“Honestly no, I think they were more surprised than anything. I don't know who picked the name killer whales. Seems kinda harsh to me, they were really sweet. I'm gonna call them sea pandas.” Kara nodded as though that settled it.

“Then operation Sea Panda Freedom will begin tomorrow and we can make a unit to disrupt the trackers. I wish I could go with you, I don't think it would be safe to carry me and a killer whale..” 

Kara glared at her.

“...sorry, sea panda, at the same time.”

“I had a thought about that actually while I was trying to get my pants off and thinking Velcro would be much faster. Seeing as I have a couple of days off, I'll see if I can get something together.”

Lena smirked. “Looks like you get all your best ideas when you're horny.”

Kara blushed. “Probably a good thing, I seem to be permanently horny these days.”

Lena dropped the sheet and pulled Kara over by her shirt, kissing her passionately, not caring about the food falling everywhere. “We should totally brainstorm again then. Besides, I was thinking about trying out one your Karma Sutra ideas.” She whispered provocatively in Kara's ear as though someone might hear it.

Kara spluttered. “We can do that?”

Lena smirked before laying back down, pulling Kara back on top of her. “Many, many times.”


	10. Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sincere apologies if anyone was waiting to read, I have had the most insane 2 weeks of work.

** Chapter 10 **

** Heat  **

_ And you're moaning about your wasted life  
Laying there listening to Spanish eyes  
With the cups on the floor and the plates in the sink  
And a room full of smoke and then you full of drink _

_ -Soft Cell _

****

James checked the buckles on his arm guards, they took quite a beating from the last drug deal he bust up. His new benefactors had stuck to their agreement and only had him intervening in problem areas, usually near schools or churches. He had used their upgraded tech to avoid the DEO agents and Supergirl again, as he made his way out of a bunch of alleys into a rundown area of downtown. He was a short distance from where he left his vehicle so he could change when he heard a shrill scream. He looked over to a bunch of dumpsters behind a restaurant where a woman was fighting off a pair of robbers.

“Stand down!” His voice boomed through the vocal changer. The two men looked over long enough for the woman to run away.

“What the fuck? Who the fuck is this idiot?” One of them spat on the ground near James feet.

“My name is Guardian, you will depart this area and you will not return, or their will be consequences.”

The second man laughed, pulled out a large hand gun and aimed it at James. “Yo, terminator, how about this for consequences.” He pulled the trigger at close range, the boom echoing around the closed off walls.

The bullet velocity dissipated around his suit causing only a small stagger backwards. James grabbed the gun to pull it away from the shooter, unfortunately he held onto it and the two were wrestling for control. James tried one last yank and the gun went off. The shooter dropped his weapon and stared behind James with wide, horrified eyes. James took the weapon and began to disassemble it when something caught his eye. He looked behind him and froze. The second man was laying on the floor with blood seeping out of a wound somewhere, staining his white shirt red.

“You killed him? You fucking killed him!” The shooter screamed as he moved toward his colleague. He felt around the neck for a pulse, looking back at a still frozen James. “He's dead.”

James felt his insides turn to mush. “I didn't... I never meant.. Oh fuck.” 

Sirens sounded in the distance and the shooter stood up and backed away. “This is on you man. You did this!” He yelled and started to run into the alleys.

James looked to the man on the floor, glassy eyes staring at nothing. The sirens sounded closer, obviously following the sounds of a gun shot triangulation system and James's instincts kicked in. He ran, as fast as he could toward his vehicle and home.

A few minutes passed when James was out of sight when the 'dead' man blinked, looked around and stood up. He followed the original shooter before the police sirens reached the area.

A couple of hundred yards away, at the predetermined place, he smiled at the shooter as he unlocked his beat up orange van, throwing the red soaked shirt in the back.

“You see his face?” The shooter cackled. “Man he looked like he shat himself when he ran away.”

The second man smiled amiably and he rustled around in the back of the van.

“Easiest two grand I ever earned. I should look into working in Hollywood, that shit was Oscar worthy.” The shooter kept up his excited babbling. “So, half up front, the other half when the job was done, I believe that concludes the job, so...” He smiled widely. 

When the second man turned around with a silenced gun in his hand, the shot that went right between his eyes happened so fast, his smile never had a chance to falter.

He grabbed the dead man and threw him into the van. “Sorry friend. One scene only, no loose ends.” He shut the door, climbed into the front and drove away.

****

James paced around his front room, swear pouring of his brow. The helmet he usually wore casually discarded on the couch. He cursed loudly and often, his hands going to his eyes to press the dark that he might hide in.

He was fucked. If that other guy came forward, if they found the gun and linked it to the guy that shot him, he would give him up. If the woman came forward because she was in the area, she would tell the police he was there, any grace his might have earned from the police, any who might have looked the other way during any chases he had had with them, would be gone. He killed a man. Was it even self defence? It was an accident, except he had heard so many people saying that someone would get hurt. They would probably make an example of him, something to stop anyone else trying their hand at being a vigilante. He was so screwed.

“Fuck!” He yelled again, followed by an animalistic noise of pain and frustration.

He was about to start pacing again when there was a knock at the door.

His stomach dropped and he thought he might vomit. He wasn't expecting anyone. He walked as quietly as possible to the door to check who was on the other side. Still dressed in his guardian outfit, he could still make a run for it if he had to. He reached the peep hole just as the visitor knocked a second time.

He saw the man that had helped him get his new gear. He was pretty sure it was him. Expensive suit, bland expression. He opened the door slowly and the man walked past him, waiting for James to shut the door.

“Mr Olsen, I see you got into a spot of trouble tonight.”

James looked at him in confusion. How did he know? It had only just happened.

“Cameras and audio in the helmet. Did you really think we would hand over all this tech and not keep an eye on our investment? Surely you are not so naive?” He smirked.

James shook his head to clear it. A spot of trouble? What was this man talking about. “I killed someone.” His voice choked out. “I was trying to disarm someone and the gun went off. I don't know where the gun is, I don't know if anyone saw.” He looked like a cornered animal at the suited man looking calmly around his home.

“We have the gun. We also took care of the body. Everything is quite fine although some of my colleagues were concerned at the reckless method you used.”

James felt like a gaping fish. “Quite fine? A man is dead! I killed him!”

The smirk dropped from the suited man and he scowled. “Keep your voice down Mr Olsen, or did you want the world to know?”

“I'm sorry, I just. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt.” He pleaded.

“These are the risks inherent to what we do Mr Olsen. There will always be risk, without it we are left at the mercy of aliens that could turn on us at anytime. What's done is done, you are safe and without compromise. With a little effort and some paint, your suit will be ready again.”

James felt sick. “I'm not sure I could put it back on. Not yet.” He expected his benefactor to be upset at this, he was surprised to find a hand on his arm.

“Of course. Besides, there are other ways to help. There is a bigger picture at play Mr Olsen, having you running around showing that we don't need aliens to deal with our problems was just a small part of it. Come. I think it's time to bring you into the fold, there are other ways you can help save the city and the people you love.”

James discarded the rest of his suit and was guided down the stairs to a waiting town car. He got into the back and realized the dark tinted window didn't just stop people looking in, it stopped them looking out. When they drove away, the privacy partition rose blocking out any and all views of where they were going.

****

“We lost him again? Mother fucker.” Alex stomped her foot in agitation. “How did you not see him from the air? This is how many times? In how many weeks?” She all but yelled at Kara.

“Whoa there, same side.” Kara pointed between the two of them. “Besides I think he did some upgrades cause one minute he was there then poof, no sign of him.” She shrugged.

Alex shook her head. “What you think he can go invisible? That's insane, we don't have anything like that and I haven't seen any aliens with that ability.”

Kara shrugged. “Lena is working on an upgrade to the Super suits that will do something similar apparently. Maybe she would know?”

“Great. Invisibility tech, what can possibly go wrong if that exists?” She packed her stuff into the DEO car, taking out her bag. She waved the agents with her to head back to the office. “I have to go see Lena anyway, might as well see if she has any ideas at the same time. You wanna give me a lift?”

Kara scrunched her face up. “Why do you have to see Lena?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Calm down _Ishmael_ , I told her I would give the monkeys a check up.” Alex looked at her smugly.

“You read Moby Dick? That's awesome!” Kara smiled.

“No, I read the online summary to try and get in your head and figure out when the next pair of killer whales is likely to go missing.”

“Sea pandas.” Kara muttered under breath.

Alex glared at her. “What did you just say? Are you planning to steal a panda? Jesus, Kara, the Chinese, just, that's an international diplomacy disaster waiting to happen!”

“I'm not gonna steal a panda Alex. That would be ridiculous.” 

Alex had a horrible feeling she had just given Kara an idea. “Look, can we just go? Now?”

Kara grinned, totally not thinking about pandas. “Yep! Climb aboard the Panda, I mean the Supergirl express.”

Alex had worked out a way of flying with Kara that didn't involve being carried like a child. She stood behind her, wrapped her arms cross-ways across Kara's upper body, linking her fingers together in a lock. “Ready when you are.” She called as Kara shot gently upwards.

When they reached the waterfront, Kara landed at the front door rather than trying to balance Alex on the landing pad at the top of the building. She held her hand to the pad waiting for the beep.

A feminine voice greeted her as the door unlocked, the same one that had mocked Alex's education choices when she tried to break in. “Welcome Supergirl, you look very heroic today.” Kara beamed at Alex rolling her eyes.

“And what happens when it calls you Supergirl and there are people around?” 

“The system can tell if I have nanobots activated, if I do, she calls me Supergirl, if I don't, she calls me Kara Danvers.”

Alex scoffed. “Probably calls you some disgustingly cute pet name as well.” 

Kara blushed. “Right, let's go see the monkeys!” She pushed forward into Lena's lab.

There was some grunting coming from the back of the lab and Alex looked at Kara in alarm.

“Don't worry, it's Lena's guys, they train with her, teaching her some self defence stuff.” Kara took some fruit and headed over to the monkeys, clicking her tongue to bring them over. “Hey guys, you doing OK? I brought Auntie Alex over to make sure you are both growing big and strong.”

Alex shook her head in amusement. Deciding to get a giggle out of Lena learning self defence rather than interrupting Kara's monkey conversation, she headed down the back stairs to take a look.

Lena's mini army was all there along with Sam and Ruby. Ozzie seemed to be trying to show Sam some basics moves on how to get out of trouble but it seemed they were mostly just cuddling in place while Ruby giggled.

Lena was listening as two of the other guys were explaining a few things to her, one of them dipped a pair of rubber looking knives into something green and shook off the excess. She heard him say something about ultra violet markings then they walked to the centre and both of the knife wielders attacked Lena at once.

Alex was not one to be easily impressed but clearly Lena had some basic knowledge before she started working on the advanced stuff and Alex was not one to downplay achievement. Lena was good. One of the Seals took her off her feet but when he slashed at her to finish, rather than scrabbling to get up, she caught his arms on the down stroke and manoeuvred him to one side before punching at his exposed ribs. If they had been doing that for real, the knife man would have been out of commission at that. Obviously he knew it too as he rolled out of the way leaving Lena facing the other guy, a handsome black man that despite his size was incredibly agile. There were no blows exchanged just a lot of thrusting and blocks. Lena dropped him to the mat and he kicked up, straight leg aimed at her mid section. Lena caught his leg, twisted her body and brought her foot down on his groin. He burst out laughing and tapped the mat. “Dirty move Irish, well played.” He held up his arm and Lena dragged him up looking rightly pleased with herself. 

The last Seal that wasn't involved brought over a UV light shining in on Lena to see if she had caught any damage, her body was untouched but she had a small line of glowing green on her cheek.

“Not bad! You got out with a small scar.” He pointed at his face where a larger scar ran under his eye. “And we all know the chicks dig scars.” He chuckled. Lena grabbed a drink and turned around, finally spotting the audience.

“Alex? What brings you here?” She asked nonchalantly. Inside she was shaking knowing her skills would seem basic compared to her girlfriends talented, and somewhat prone to violence, sister.

“Monkey visit. Kara's still out there playing with them. Nice security on the entrance, very clever.”

Lena smiled handing Alex a bottle of the water from the side.

“Kara doesn't seem to want to share what ridiculous pet name you gave her, it's probably something sickeningly sweet.” Alex teased. “Do you use the same name for each other, or do you have individual nicknames.” 

Lena smirked at her. “Well Kara calls me Daddy, but you probably figured that out after the other night.”

Alex inhaled her water and started coughing violently, the boys were hooting and slapping Lena on the back. Sam just chuckled and walked over to Alex with a towel. “You really shouldn't push her buttons, she will always win. Trust me, I've learned the hard way over the years.” 

Ruby asked Ozzie why Kara would call Lena Daddy making Sam blush. Ozzie clapped, kissed the top of her head and held his hands over her ears making her laugh.

“And that's my cue to leave. C'mon kiddo.” Sam called to her daughter.

“Can I show Alex what I learned today before we go!” 

Sam rolled her eyes. “Make it quick.”

Ruby jumped onto the mats and waited for Ozzie to get behind her. He grabbed her coat by the shoulder and pulled her against him. Ruby quickly dropped to the floor making Ozzie off balance, she slid between his legs, catching his ankle and shoved her body weight against his knee. Ozzie dropped like an oak, Alex watched him quickly pull his hands back to under his body and realized why when Ruby followed it up with a thundering kick between his legs making Alex wince.

Ruby threw her hands in the air in victory and the adults clapped loudly, including Alex. It was a simple and very effective move that Ruby executed perfectly.

“Then what do you do?” Sam yelled over the cheering.

“Run as fast AF!” Ruby yelled back to louder cheers.

Ruby and Sam exchanged hugs with Lena and then Alex as they went to leave, passing Kara on the way in.

Lena walked over to Alex. “So as much fun as it would be to kick my ass, you would likely have more fun playing with the Seals if you like.”

Alex grinned at the opportunity. “You were good up there.”

Lena blushed.

“Really, take the compliment, that was a good fight. I know Kara is pleased that you can take care of yourself if you have too. Good job Luthor.”

It was probably the first real smile Alex had given her. Lena couldn't help but laugh that the thing that finally broke the ice with Kara's sister was a knife fight.

She left Alex to play with the mini army and took Kara into the Lab to 'talk'.

****

When the town car finally stopped, James had no idea where they were. He had tried originally to keep track of turns and any sounds that would give him a sense of where he was, but after travelling for an hour, he knew it to be futile. The door was opened and his suited companion gestured for him to leave the car and follow.

It was a manor house. That was the only word James could use to describe the building. He walked up the ornate steps to the entrance, concerned at the number of security people standing around casually. He was guided into a large room where various people moved around, it was like standing in a modern office set in the 1700's. Large gaudy artwork spread across the walls, interspersed with computer security pads. The furniture looked like a film set of an Edwardian drama with added computers, printers, tablets. 

The thing that drew his attention were the men that were clearly staring at him, as though they had been waiting. The one that stepped forward to greet him reminded James of his bank manager. If his bank manager was a billionaire with a really good stylist. Before he could open his mouth, a woman's voice startled him from behind.

“Mr Olsen.” Her smile was warm but James felt cold, he knew who she was and he wondered if he would leave here alive. “I believe you know who I am. But not where we are.” She swept her hand around casually. “Welcome to Cadmus.”

James's eyes nearly shot out of his head as Lillian Luthor walked regally into the room. “Cadmus? You cant be serious?” He voice squeaked as he said it.

“I assure you I am quite serious. We've been following your exploits for a while and lent our aid when it seemed that our situation aligned with yours.”

James felt like his heart was going to fly out of his chest. “Are you joking? I just wanted to keep people safe! I don't have intentions. You're a terrorist organization!”

“Terrorist organization? Really Mr Olsen? We also simply want to keep humanity safe. Tell me, what acts of terror have we been credibly accused of? Doubtless you have seen and heard the media propaganda but ask yourself. Have we done anything illegal? Perhaps some of our financial arrangements might warrant further looking into, however let's be honest, that could be said of most company boards.” There was a small laugh echoed around the room from the various people that were apparently Cadmus board members. “We are not prone to acts of random terror, we simply think that earth was quite capable of looking after itself for thousands of years and we are only now in need of aid from aliens because we attract aliens due to our protection from aliens.”

James wondered if he was going to leave this meeting alive. Granted they had no need to kill him, they hadn't told him anything of merit, he had no idea where he had been taken so he drew on his courage to point out a flaw. “Cadmus separated from the government when the alien amnesty was signed. Because you could no longer experiment on the aliens, you went rogue. Then of course there is your son, Lex, who killed a great many aliens, including the numerous attempts on Superman, a friend of mine. Then there were the all the humans that died in the crossfire of his last rampage. I think maybe that's why the government think you are terrorists.” He crossed his arms tightly over his chest, unsure if it was to press his point or the self sooth of the terrified.

Lillian's cold smile dropped for a second before she rebounded. “Firstly you assume the government is telling the truth. Cadmus was not in the habit of experimenting on aliens **until** the government signed the amnesty agreement. That is when the orders changed and we wanted no part of it. We decided to branch out and find an alternative route that would let the aliens stay as part of Earth but without the complications of the extra ordinary abilities that many of them possess. Abilities that we are unable to counter. We are defenceless in our own home Mr Olsen with only the protection of the same extra ordinary powers that keep us prisoner.” Lillian took a breath and her smile dropped to one of concern. “Lex is in prison for his behaviour. He is not part of our organization. And his ideals veer onto a different path altogether. We don't want to kill aliens. Most of them are nothing more than refugees searching for a better existence.”

James raised an eyebrow at this. This was not the sales pitch he was expecting. “So what do you want to achieve?”

“Using the work of the current government program that  ** does ** experiment on aliens, we believe we have found a way to neutralize their abilities, making the threat of alien attack void. No longer needed to rely on anything other than our own human ingenuity, as we have for thousands of years.”

James furrowed his brows. “Neutralize their abilities? But not kill them?” He seemed distrustful.

Lillian's cold smile returned in force. “Yes. Nobody here wants to be a murderer.”

James noticed that one of the monitors on the wall was displaying a film recording that could only have come from his Guardian suit. He watched the scene play out as the stray bullet hit its target dropping it in a pool of blood. The glass behind it was broken and filthy but still showed him clearly in the reflection. He understood finally what a rock and a hard place meant.

Lillian continued as though she hadn't noticed what was playing. “As I said, no one here wants that, just the peace that we have always enjoyed while extending the welcome to refugees in their time of need.”

He shook his head, unsure what to believe. “Why do you think I would help? Two of my closest friends are aliens. Both of whom have been affected by your families choices.”

Lillian looked him right in the eye and James finally saw the anger behind the cold smile. “Ah but only one of your friends is an alien, the other has turned her back on your friendship in order to ensconce herself in my daughters bed.”

James blushed an interesting shade and ground his teeth together. 

“My daughter is only allowing this for two reasons. One, to spite me out of some petty perceived childhood slights. The other is because like both my children, she has her own ego maniacal demons. Outdoing her brother for my affections, learning all the mystery behind a wilful Super that no longer listens to the advice of her friends and family, giving it all away to a Luthor. Even Superman chose to support her when you approached him to talk some sense into her. It wont be long before her sister is wrapped up in the idea of the  _ good _ Luthor. Imagine James, when Kara is nothing more than a human, how long do you think Lena's interests will keep her around? Poor little Kara is going to find herself powerless and brokenhearted. Tell me James, who will she turn to then?”

James couldn't believe Lillian knew of Kara's identity, there should be no way she would know. Unless. “How do you know her name?”

Lillian laughed in his face. “And here I thought you were intelligent Mr Olsen. How do you think I know her identity? Hmm?”

James could hear an internal voice warning him that this wasn't as simple as it was painted out to be. He pushed it to one side. “How do you intend to do this? Are you going to capture all of them?”

Lillian laughed, James at least had the presence of mind to note the lack of joy in it. “Nothing so gauche. An airborne distribution of a chemical formula that will painlessly render all powers moot.”

“And you have the means to do this?” He asked.

“We would have, but Lena and your friends at the DEO raided Lex's last remaining laboratory. The component we need to finalize the distributor was among them. I believe it now resides in the DEO.”

James thought about it. “And you need me to get it?”

“I need you to decide if Kara means enough to you to protect her from my daughter. Because if Lena uncovers all of Kara's secrets, I assure you none of us are safe.”

The little voice in James head made one last attempt to reach him and was spitefully crushed out. Lena had told Lillian who Supergirl was. Everything he had tried to warn Kara about was vindicated. “What's it called?”

Lillian smiled at him again and for once, she looked genuinely happy. “Isotope 454.”

  
  



	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of violence in this. Graphic enough. Oh and there might be a tiny cliff hanger, but I'm nearly done, so you wont have to wait.

** Chapter 11 **

** One Way Or Another **

_I will drive past your house  
And if the lights are all down  
I'll see who's around  
One way or another, I'm gonna find ya_

_ -Blondie _

****

It had been a while since James had been to the DEO, he was nervous as he walked around, in case they had found some evidence that he was Guardian, worried that they might know why he was there. Worried that if Cadmus had recruited him to their cause, did they have others here that would know he was helping them. Would they know why he was helping them. James could feel his breathing start to stutter, his back clammy beneath his shirt, hands shaking. He walked as confidently as he could around the headquarters hoping not to see anyone that he knew. Especially J'onn. He never considered J'onn. Doubtless he didn't go around reading minds, but what if his mind was screaming his guilt. He ducked into a corner to get himself under control before moving swiftly to the labs in the hope the isotope was exactly where he was told it would be.

30 minutes later, he was heading toward the exit, isotope in his pocket when he heard his name called. He froze, put a casual smile on his face and turned to look at Alex.

“Hey stranger!” She smiled at him. “Haven't see you around in a while, how's things with you?”

“Alex! Yeah it's been a while. Running a giant magazine can be a time suck you know? Struggling with Kara because she still wont listen. She brought Lena into the office the other day and they managed to get into a fight with Snapper. I had to tell her to take a few days off.”

Alex frowned. “What was the fight about?”

James sat down opposite her. “Usual, Lena is God's gift, can do no wrong. Snapper pointed out her families long line of killing people and Kara went off on him. You believe she actually cursed him out? Snapper wanted to fire her so I told her to take a few days.” He shrugged.

“You're kidding? Snapper tore into Lena?”

Now it was James's turn to frown. “Can you blame him? With her history?”

Alex shuffled some papers around. “Thing is, Kara is right, none of that history is Lena's. I cant say I was happy when Kara told her, but I gotta say James, Lena really stepped up. She has helped Kara no end and she gave us Lex's last laboratories. I probably wont ever say this to Kara, but I might have let my own issues cloud things as far as Lena was concerned.”

James coughed when she mentioned the laboratories knowing what was in his jacket, but when she started talking about Lena like that, he was ready to explode. “Lillian Luthor knows Supergirl and Kara are the same person.”

“What? How? Who told you this?” Alex yelled.

“I have a source, said Lillian knows because Lena told her. Says Lena is just like Lex but playing the long game to get her approval.”

Alex looked at him. Her initial instinct to drive to Lena and arrest her or put her in a room deep into the mountains somewhere was fighting with what she had seen with her own eyes. Kara's Kryptonite protection, Superman's Kryptonite protection. The water filtration system that she was giving away rather than make a fortune. The children's hospital, the protection for the families she was providing. The way she looked at Kara as if she was the most precious thing on the planet. Hell even the damn monkeys that she took in because if Kara found out she would be upset. Then of course she had no doubt that Lena was helping Kara with her new found whale relocation program. She shook her thoughts out. “Leave that with me.”

James nodded, satisfied that Alex would not be fooled again by the youngest Luthors intentions toward Kara. “Let me know what you find out? I have to get back to work before anyone notices I'm gone.” 

“What brought you over anyway?” Alex asked as they got up.

James froze for a second before rallying. “I wanted to let you know that Lillian knew and Lena's involvement. Let me know yeah?”

Alex nodded and watched James walk away. She grabbed her bag and her bike keys and headed out shortly afterwards.

****

Alex stood outside the electronic doors waiting for the buzz that would let her in. When it came, she pushed in ready to get answers.

Lena was at her desk, fiddling with some small electronic contraption, one of the monkeys perched on her shoulder. Alex started chuckling as Lena casually passed a piece of wire to him and he handed back a mini tool of some sort. She looked at Lena, trying to see her as the competition to be the next Lex and found it harder than she expected. The woman had a monkey on her shoulder and fruit in her hair for God's sake. This was not an evil genius. A genius no doubt, but it was hard to see Lena as evil seeing her like this. One way to be sure.

“What are you working on?” Alex asked as she put her bag down.

Lena smiled at her. “I had a thought about those nanobots. The ones for Kara's and Clark's suit. We were being silly last night and kept changing Kara's hair colour. Then we ended up completely restyling it, Supergirl with a Mohawk kind of thing.” Lena almost snorted in amusement. “Any way, I was thinking, if I can make hair restyle, perhaps I can make flesh restyle. Using them for surgery is still a long way off, but perhaps surface stuff, like removing scars or even giving the appearance that the scar is no longer there, cosmetic things. One of the first patients we'll be taking in at the hospital is a young boy with facial burns. Poor thing is going to need a lot of operations over the years just to make his skin comfortable, but he's still going to have to deal with the disfigurement, so I started pondering.”

Alex decided to rip the band aid off. “Apparently your mother knows Kara is Supergirl, apparently you told her.” Alex deliberately kept her tone non committal.

Lena flinched. “She's not my mother.”

Alex nodded. “Did you tell her?”

“I did not. That she knows doesn't shock me. Lex has extensive records on Superman. He'd pore over them obsessively for days at a time. Made a note of everything, every date. Honestly if he wasn't so barking mad it would be impressive. I kept the records because they are so detailed. I got the knowledge from the Kryptonite shield from them. Obviously I took all reference to Clark's name out, but by then both Lex and Lillian knew. It probably wasn't hard for her to make the connection.”

Alex nodded. “I want to believe you. I do. I probably wont ever like you because you are doing things to my baby sister that I never want to think about, let alone witness again. Honestly even when you marry her I'm probably still going to be plotting your death, but I do think you are a decent person. Unfortunately, I cant just ignore this. So for my sanity, because this will come out at the DEO, convince me you are not an evil criminal mastermind so I can defend you and not face the wrath of Kara.”

Lena hid her surprise only from years of upbringing. “If I was going to be a criminal mastermind, L-Corp would have been the best place to be. I knew Kara was Supergirl, and I knew she wouldn't tell me that she was Supergirl while I was still running a business associated with Lex and Lillian. So I tanked it, because walking away wouldn't have made a difference, I knew I had to leave it in ashes. Because as much as it horrifies you, I am desperately in love with your sister.”

Alex nodded. “Perhaps you should make the Nanobots colour her hair all the time. Make her a brunette or something. Maybe have Kara do an interview with Catco showing off new suit and hair etc. Start making the distinction obvious in case we have to show Kara and Supergirl in the same place.”

Lena's eyebrows nearly jumped off her face. “You can do that? How?”

Alex didn't even think about not answering. “J'onn, he's a shape-shifter. He can read minds as well.”

Lena sighed. “Let me guess.”

Alex held her hands up in defence. “I'm just saying, if you ever want or need to prove beyond a doubt that you aren't a threat.” She let the sentence trail off.

“I'm not thrilled at the idea, but Kara speaks very highly of him. If I have to, I will.” Lena relaxed back in her chair, the monkey curling up in her arms. “I don't think Lillian plans to expose Kara, I never quite understood why Lex didn't out Clark, he had ample opportunity, clearly they think there was good reason not to. But yes, I agree, Kara should make as many discrepancies between herself and her alter ego as possible.” 

Alex nodded. “OK then.”

Lena crinkled her forehead. “That's it? You believe me?”

Alex shrugged. “Like I said, baby sister, but I'm not stupid, you haven't shown me one thing that makes me think you are a threat to Kara. Hell even Superman is one step away from inviting you to Thanksgiving. Not sure James will ever be swayed though.”

Lena scoffed. “Of course he wont. James thinks he's in love with Kara. I've had enough therapy in my life to confidently diagnose James.”

Alex looked confused. “What do you mean? I know he has a crush, you don't think he does?”

Lena scooped the other monkey up as he came over to see what he was missing out on. She got them settled and sorted her thoughts out. “James was in awe of Superman, he held him in the utmost admiration, almost selfishly guarded his friendship. He couldn't be in love with him, so he picked the closest feeling. When Clark finally admitted who he was to Lois, they got together and James didn't want to share or be relegated to second place. So he moved to National City. When Clark asked him to look out for his little cousin, he jumped at the chance. He couldn't be in love with Superman, but he can be in love with Supergirl. He isn't though, not really. He wants to **be** Superman, he wants the glory, the praise, the adulation. He cant be Kara, but he wants to be the man she comes home to, the man she confides in. The little God-ling that listens to the wise counsel of James Olsen. Anyone that wants access to Supergirl has to bow and scrape to him. He wants that power. Honestly he's potentially far more of a menace than I am. James wants, _needs_ , that power over people. Probably explains why he tried to get into my bed.” Lena finished her pondering.

Alex nearly choked. “He did what? When was this?” Lena told her. “That's pretty shitty, we all knew at that time that Kara was falling for you. Why would he do that when he knew what Kara felt?”

Lena shrugged again. “Power. If he cant have Kara, then he can have what Kara wants. I don't know, whole thing creeped me out and pissed me off, I tried not to think about it honestly.”

Alex frowned. She's pretty certain that Lena is not a clear and present danger. Now she just had to think about James. Why was nothing simple? Talking of, Alex looked to the door above as it opened to a bedraggled looking Kara.

“What the hell happened to you?” She yelled up.

“I got my anti tracking thingamajig working, but I think it hurts them.” She stomped down the stairs and directly to the kitchen. “One of the sea pandas bit me!”

Lena put her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing.

“I know I am going to regret this, but what anti tracking thingamajig? And who is it hurting? And what the fuck is a sea panda?” Alex sighed.

Kara looked over as though it just occurred to her what she was admitting. “Um, nothing?”

Alex shook her head. “You know what, I take it back, you're clearly a very bad influence on her and I forbid you from dating her any longer. Here, give the monkeys one a day, it has all they need to stay healthy. I made them so they should be tasty. If you cant get them to eat them, we're gonna have to look at jabs once a month to make up for the things they eat in the wild. I got some pellets from a place that uses them...” She looked up at Kara's wide eyes as she processed what Alex was saying. With visions of Kara raiding laboratories across the west coast to release all the monkeys she stopped herself. “You know what, I got some pellets, that's it. Put the pellets down for them.” Alex grabbed her bag and her crash helmet and walked out the door.

“Hey you.” Lena walked to Kara and put her arms around her. “You smell like the ocean again. I assume this had nothing to do with a new washing powder?”

Kara blushed. “Sorry, I didn't get a chance to clean up.”

“Don't be, you always have a little ozone scent to you, I like it, reminds me of being near the coast before I went to live with the Luthors.”

Kara kissed her, pulling Lena as close to her body as she physically could. When they pulled apart, Kara pouted. “The sea panda bit me. I'm thinking of changing their names back.” 

Lena laughed and pulled her to one of the work benches. “Well we cant have that, not after all that effort you made to rename them. Let's see if we cant make your machine painless darling.”

****

James found himself pacing around his office. He had the tube that Cadmus wanted. He had his doubts, but his mind kept going back to Lillian's words about Kara, about Lena and how she was using Kara for her own ends. He didn't understand why it was making him anxious. He couldn't get anyone to listen to his warnings so maybe this was the best way. Alex couldn't prove that Lena was working to destroy Kara, that she had told Lillian her identity, that she would hurt Kara. He wanted Lena away from Kara and if handing over this chemical would keep her safe, he had to be alright with it. His phone rang, snapping him out of his pacing. Alex's name came up on the phone.

“Hey Alex, did you meet with Lena?”

“Hey James. I asked her about Lillian, she says she didn't tell her, but wasn't surprised to hear that she knew.”

“And you believe her?” He asked sarcastically.

Alex sighed. “As it goes, I do. She said she wasn't happy about the idea, but she would let J'onn do his mind reading trick on her.”

James scoffed at her. “Like she isn't smart enough to fool him. That's the thing with Lena, she can fool anyone.”

“Anyone except you?” Alex asked neutrally.

“Yes! Apparently I am the only one she cant fool.” James words came across with venom.

“Is that why you tried to get romantically involved with her? Because she cant fool you but you think you can fool her?”

James seemed taken aback by that. “What do you mean?”

“She told me you tried to seduce her.” Alex cringed at the word. “Why would you do that James? Even if we didn't trust her, you knew how Kara felt about her.”

“It was to protect Kara. I thought if I was involved with her she would let something slip about her plans. Something we could use.” He snapped.

“So she is so clever that she can fool us, fool the DEO, fool Kara, fool the mind reading Martian, but she would suddenly slip up and tell you what her plans were?” Alex snapped back.

“I'm not sure what your problem is Alex, you know we cant trust her.”

“That's the thing James, nothing I've seen makes me think that we cant trust her. Since she's been involved with Kara I've had a chance to see a lot more and I think we were wrong.” Alex spoke quietly, unsure of what reaction she would get. “This source of yours, is he able to come in and talk to us directly?”

James sighed. “You're right. I trust you Alex, if you think it's safe, I'll try and keep an open mind. Listen somethings come up, I have to go OK? Speak to you soon.”

He hung up before Alex could press about the source. She stared at her phone. Something about this was wrong. Something was setting her teeth on edge and she couldn't put her finger on what it might be.

Across the city, James was pulling a card out of his wallet. He dialed the number, it rang twice before it was picked up with a simple word.

“Speak.”

“I have your isotope.”

There was silence on the other end. As James was about to check if the connection was still working, the voice came back.

“Be at your apartment at 9pm, someone will collect it from you.” 

The line disconnected. James had chosen his path, he just had to ride it out and wait now.

****

“Hmm, not that I'm complaining, but what's got into you?” Lena mouthed against Kara's neck.

“I'm more interested in getting in to you.” Kara quipped back as she started removing Lena's clothes. 

Lena laughed at she deactivated the super suit. “Is that so?” Lena's sweater was discarded, her jeans followed quickly afterwards. “Taking my clothes off with super speed is cheating.”

Kara slipped her hand into Lena's underwear and pushed inside. “Nah uh, don't wanna wait.”

Lena moaned in relief until she remembered what they were doing. “Wait, wait.” She pulled reluctantly away and moved to the wall opposite the bed.

Kara watched her go in confusion. “Ah, sex box. Forgot.”

Lena turned around and smiled at her. “How about you super speed out of those clothes.”

Kara did just that, leaving her standing there in boxers and nothing else. “What do you think?” She held out her arms in a pose.

“I bought you that underwear to wear when you sleep. It's not the sexiest thing I've seen.” Lena smirked and she flicked the red sun box on.

Kara looked down at them. “But they're cute? Look!” She pointed at them. “They have monkeys!”

“Just what every woman wants to look at when they get on their knees for their lover.” Lena snarked.

Kara looked at her in confusion. “Wait, what?”

Lena dropped to her knees and raised an eyebrow. “Lose the monkeys Kara. Now.”

Kara grinned down at her and ripped the shorts off.

****

“What are your plans for tonight?” Kara asked while rubbing gentle circles across Lena's back as she lay across her lap.

“No plans. How about you?”

“I was thinking about whether I could fly us back to my apartment naked without anyone seeing us.”

Lena chuckled and looked up at her girlfriend. “What's at your apartment that requires us there quickly and naked?” 

“I bought a strap on.” Kara grinned proudly.

“You did not!” Lena laughed. “You actually went into a store and bought a strap on, after the embarrassment of last time?”

Kara huffed. “I bought one online. Figured it was less awkward. It arrived today.” 

Lena thought she looked far too pleased with herself. “Please tell me you didn't get one with sea pandas on it.”

“I didn't but now you mention it, I wonder if you can get them?” Kara laughed at the horrified look on Lena's face.

Before they could talk about naked flight logistics, Kara's phone went off with Alex's ring tone. She spent a minute listening to Alex and hung up.

“Sadly, my new strap on is going to have to wait to be christened. Apparently there is a downtown sighting of this Guardian idiot.” She got up and picked up her clothes from around the room. When she was fully dressed, she activated her super suit. “You gonna head home?”

Lena rolled over, not really wanting to move at all. “In a bit, I want to look at your tracking gadget first. How about I drive over to your place and wait for you when I'm done?”

“Cool! But you're not allowed to look at it until I get there. It's a surprise!” Kara grinned.

“Jesus Kara, it's a sex toy, it really isn't supposed to be a surprise. I do wonder about you sometimes.” Lena tried not to laugh, she really did, but God alone knew what Kara had ordered. Probably in Supergirl colors with a cape or something ridiculous. She rolled her eyes and got out of bed as Kara opened the door to a loud screech.

“Damn monkey, you really don't like sharing do you?” Kara looked at the little furry creature who screeched one more time before running off. “See you later OK?”

“Be safe, love you.”

Kara grinned like a fool as she walked out the door leaving Lena to get dressed.

****

James put on his Guardian suit and headed downtown in his van. He made a point of being seen in public areas until he heard the comm in his helmet. Alex voice telling the agents that he was seen downtown. He heard her a second time calling to Kara to see if she was nearly in place. She responded that she would be there shortly and to let Alex know Lena was coming to her place tonight so after the patrol she wouldn't be free. It was perfect, he could do this without any interruption. He ran through the back alleys to his van, jumped in and headed to the waterfront. Knowing he only had a short time before they gave up looking for him. He parked a short distance away, climbing onto the nearby roof tops to avoid any security measures of climbing around Lena's building directly. He got into position above the doorway and waited.

****

Lena looked at the device that Kara had built to try and figure a way to make it zap without an actual zap. The longer she stared at it, the more she realized that she wasn't paying any attention and all she could think about was Kara's recent shopping purchase. She laughed at her own inability to be productive before putting it down and shutting her lab down. She threw a few peanuts down for the monkeys and walked over to her car, as soon as the door was open, she reversed out gently.

She was just clear of the door when she felt a giant crunch, instinctively looking over her shoulder she couldn't quite comprehend the large white clad storm trooper on the front of her ruined car. Before she had a chance to scream, the giant man grabbed her by the top of her arm and yanked her into the air. She screamed as she felt her arm dislocate from the force of it against the seat-belt. She tried to stand up, but a vicious back handed blow to her face brought her back to the floor, she was pretty sure her nose was broken as she choked on the blood running down her throat. All she could think of was run. She started to crawl away, hoping to get to her feet and stagger into a run when her attacker drew back his foot and slammed into her ribs. The pain was excruciating, she lay on the floor wishing Kara was here. Kara. She could call Kara. She reached for the watch that Kara had given her, unable to get her dislocated arm to co-operate. The white man spoke through a voice changer and she heard the words _I don't think so_ as he stomped down on her hand. Thankfully Lena's injuries took her out of consciousness before he stomped on her wrist.

All of his rage, all of his anger, roared into life as James jumped from the roof and wrecked the front of Lena's car. It emboldened him, motivated him. He wrenched her from the car, ignoring the scream of pain that she let out. This woman was going to hurt Kara, was going to take Kara away, break her and leave her devastated. She had fooled all of them, none of them realized what a danger she was, she had charmed even Superman into trusting her. The sooner she was out of the picture, the sooner they could go back to their lives. He saw her trying to reach for the watch that Kara had given her. The one that Kara only gave to people she loved and trusted. He brought his foot down to shatter it when he felt his legs taken out from under him and he was rolling around the floor with a large man trying to grab his helmet off him. The man landed on top, desperately grabbing at the helmet, James felt it start to come off. He panicked and threw the man away. Before he could get to his feet, the crazy man was on his feet, gun pointed and emptying the full clip into James. When the bullets bounced off he was launching himself back at James. Punching wildly, trying to force him off balance. He felt a sharp pain in his forearm as he realized the man had stabbed him between the gaps in his armour. He grabbed him in one hand, lifting him away, barely able to see as the visor was now half on his face. He punched him, not caring about the strength behind it or where it landed. The man flew through the air and crashed into the side of Lena's car. He righted his helmet and walked toward them, ready to end this. He saw Lena laying on the floor, face covered in blood, her arm at a disgusting position in relation to her body. The man he had fought was crawling toward her, blood spilling from his ear, a bone poking through his pants where his leg was broken. He realized in horror what was about to happen when the man reached over, flipped the cover and pushed the button before passing out in a heap.

James ran out of there as fast as his legs could take him. Only when he was back in his van did he think about what had happened. When the adrenaline wore off, he had to rip the helmet away before he threw up on the passenger seat. He got the van started and drove away as carefully as he could while trying to get away. He continued to vomit as he drove.

****

“I don't see him anywhere Alex.” Kara complained as she flew lazily around the area. “You sure someone saw him?”

Alex sighed in her ear piece. “I get it, you wanna go home and see Lena. Just give it 5 more minutes yeah? Then you can, wait, apparently the local cops picked up gunfire, lemme check where they triangulated it to. K Kara, the shots are over near Lena's office.”

“Alex I'm going over now, Alex! Lena's alarm just went off. Stay on the line with me.” Kara flew fast enough to blow out a couple of windows. Seconds later she landed in front of Lena's building and her heart stopped. 

“Supergirl, what's happening, what can you see? Is Lena OK?”

Alex would never forget the pain of the sound that she heard next as Kara screamed.”


	12. A Place To Stay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate cliffhangers, I really do, so I couldn't just leave it. Perhaps not my best writing as I wanted to get it out quickly in case work goes crazy again.

** Chapter 12 **

** A Place To Stay **

_ We never see the end begin  
Only when it settles in  
We didn't have so long to wait  
But even now its hard to take _

_ -Alison Moyet _

****

They made an odd group standing around the hospital waiting room. Kara had flown to National City Hospital. She would have preferred Alex be involved, but with Lena and Ozzie so horribly damaged she thought having more Doctors would have been better. She didn't want to fly them at all seeing the damage that had been done, terrified that it would make it worse, but the idea of standing their idly, waiting for an ambulance, losing precious minutes. It was more than she could take.

Alex had met her at the hospital, leaving Nia, J'onn and Brainy running things at the DEO. When she found out it was Ozzie in surgery with Lena, she called Maggie to collect Sam. Sam turned up with a distraught looking Ruby and immediately called his Seal unit.

So there they were. Tucker, Gunner and Twofer were taking turns looking after Sam and Ruby. Maggie was trying so be a silent support for Alex. Alex looked sick and just stared at her sister, trying to find anything that would help.

Kara.

Kara was a ball of rage. The anxiety running off her in waves was setting Alex's teeth on edge.

She hadn't said a word since the Doctor's took Lena and Ozzie into surgery. She had had to scream in Kara's face to let them take them both. Kara looked at her, her eyes empty before she nodded and stepped back. That's when the rage took over.

They had been there for 3 hours so far. 3 hours on cold, plastic seating.

Gunner stood up and said he was going to get some coffee from the cafe downstairs. Ruby wanted to go with him and but Sam needed to see her, have her in her arms while she waited.

“It's OK Sammy, she'll be safe with me.” Gunner's soft voice broke through her thoughts. 

She looked to him, casually standing with his hand on his weapon. She nodded to Ruby who walked over to him. Gunner held his hand out and they walked toward the elevators together.

Tucker moved over to crouch in front of Sam, he lifted her head up gently. “We're a package deal Sammy. You take on one of us, you get whole package. We're all here for you, you and Rubes. Whatever you need. Understand?” He smiled softly.

Sam had reached breaking point and just flung her arms around him crying. In a casual show of strength, he lifted her up so she was held off the ground, sobbing into his neck.

Kara's rage increased.

Alex stood up and walked over to her. “Why don't we go to Lena's lab and see if we can get something from the cameras?”

Kara swallowed hard, not sure she could face seeing what Lena had been through in real time.

“C'mon, soon as we know who did this, soon as we can kick their ass yeah?”

Kara wiped her eyes angrily. “I need to be here when she wakes up.”

Alex used her thumbs to gently brush the tears away. “You're Supergirl, we can be back here within seconds when the Dr comes out.”

Twofer walked over to them. He swapped cell numbers with Alex and seeing she was unarmed, pulled his holster off to give her.

Alex nodded her thanks. “Call us the second the Dr appears, for either of them please.” She led Kara away to the Hospital exit. Kara activated her suit and waited for Alex to situate herself.

They arrived true to Alex's word seconds later. The wreck of the car was still there along with the blood. Kara dropped to her knees and wailed, a plaintive sound that broke Alex's heart.

“C'mon. Let's get inside, get what we came for, then get back to Lena OK?” She pulled the incredibly pliant Kara with her to the security door.

Kara raised her hand to the security panel. The machine glowed green and the door clicked open. “Welcome Supergirl, National City's Guardian Angel.”

Alex smiled. “Does she say something different every time you turn up?”

Kara smiled through her wet eyes and nodded. “I don't know how many Lena programmed in, I've never heard the same one twice.”

To Alex's surprise, Kara's hand print didn't just let them in, it activated all the security, the computer console rose, the platforms came down from the ceiling. This was the final sign for Alex. Lena was no threat to Kara, she had literally given her the keys to the kingdom. She wasn't going to press it, but she would put good money that Kara could activate the elevator down to the vault and probably the vault itself.

Alex walked to the computer to see if she could pull up any footage. Kara walked to the tree in the middle of the room and sat down with an uncoordinated thump. The monkeys came over quietly and curled up with her. Kara hugged them gently to her chest and cried softly. Alex looked over and her heart damn near broke at the sight. Squeezing her eyes together to stop them from weeping, she turned away to the screens, determined that someone was going to really fucking pay for this.

It was easier than she thought to bring up the security cameras, from there finding earlier footage. She looked over at Kara and decided she didn't need to see it. She turned the volume off and watched what happened. 

Guardian.

What the fuck was this so called “Superhero” doing? Alex wanted him stopped because she thought he would get someone hurt, but he had only ever shown himself to be a good guy. Why the fuck was trying to kill Lena?

She winced as she saw Lena dragged from the car, thankful the audio was off as she saw Lena's mouth open in a silent scream. She saw Ozzie fly around the corner and into Guardian as he tried to stomp on Lena's wrist. She watched them roll around before Ozzie came up, gun aimed and firing at Guardian. When it had no effect, God bless him he flung himself at Guardian. Wild punches left and right. He was trying to get the visor off to disorientate the attacker. She watched with a grimace as his leg snapped from the punch he received before he was flung head first into the car. She was about to shut it off when she noticed, he was crawling to Lena. Not Lena, Lena's wrist. It was Ozzie who activated the alarm. Alex furrowed her brow. As soon as he did it, Guardian ran. Like in a panic ran away. So he knew. She thought about just before Ozzie attacked him, Guardian was trying to smash the watch. Guardian knew about the watch. How the hell did he know? Something didn't make sense.

She looked over to Kara, she was singing a Kryptonite lullaby to the monkeys in her arms. Alex turned away again to wipe her eyes. She walked back to the lower area into the bedroom looking around. She saw the small box that didn't seem to have a purpose plugged into the wall. She took it on a hunch. She walked back to Kara, took a deep breath and spoke. “I have what I need. Let's get back to your girl yeah?” She was praying Kara didn't ask her anything. The last thing they needed was a furious out of control Supergirl heading out in vengeance.

She took her hand and they walked outside, setting the security as they did. Alex kept herself between the visual of the car and Kara. She settled on Kara's back as they flew back to the hospital.

As they walked down the corridor where the others were waiting, Ruby and Gunner back from their coffee run, the doors to the Dr area opened and a woman came out with a clipboard. She took one look at the armed and silent faces and gulped. “Family of Lena Luthor?” 

Alex stepped forward. “Lena doesn't recognize any of her blood family. Were her family.”

The woman sighed. “I'm sorry, I really need immediate family.” 

Alex was about to explode when she felt Sam's hand on her arm. “My name is Samantha Arias, I'm Lena's power of attorney, please tell us what is happening.”

The Dr nodded, directing her comments to Sam. “Firstly, barring any unforeseen complications, Lena is fine. She has three cracked ribs, there was some internal bleeding, minimum but we reached it early and tied it off. Her left arm was dislocated, it was a clean dislocation so we set it while she was unconscious. It will be sore for a while, some physio and it will regain full usage in no time. Her nose was broken, but again, it was a clean break so we reset it. Lastly her cheekbone was fractured, nothing we can do about that, there is a nasty cut where it was broken, she will have a scar there but a good plastic surgeon can probably make it less visible if not remove it altogether. She is on heavy pain medication and in and out of consciousness. We want to keep her here tonight, possibly tomorrow night, but then she should be safe to go home. She is going to be sore and her arm is strapped up so is there anyone that can stay with her?

The Dr was amused when she heard seven simultaneous responses. “I can.” She chuckled. “Huh, popular.” 

Kara felt herself sink against Alex, barely holding herself upright at the news. Alex spoke up for her. “When can we see her?” 

“I'll take you in shortly, we're just getting her settled in a room.” She took a deep breath. “Which of you are the family for Russel Phillips?”

Sam let out a laugh. When everyone looked to her, she burst into tears. “I didn't know his name. He was just Ozzie.”

Twofer stepped forward. “Russel has no blood relations. He is my brother by decree, we have served together for 13 years. I'll take full responsibility for him, my name is Anthony Maynard, Senior Chief Petty Officer formerly SDVT-1.” 

The Dr nodded at him in acceptance. “That would explain some of the scarring and previous damage. Your boy has been through the wars. Quite literally I think. Russel's condition is a little more complicated. We set his leg, obviously we had to pin and rod it, he will be off his feet for a while. The complication is the head injury. He has some swelling on his brain, we are keeping him in ICU for now in a medical coma. It is possible that he will need surgery to remove the swelling if it doesn't go down on it's own. I hate to make things awkward, but we will need his medical insurance to keep treating him.” She looked up at them.

“Shit. What happens if he doesn't have insurance?” Tucker asked quietly.

“If he doesn't have insurance, we'll have to move him to another hospital.”

Sam spoke up. “Didn't Lena put you on a healthcare plan when she hired you?” 

Twofer shrugged. “I don't know. I don't think so.”

Sam laughed. “Typical Lena, always getting caught up in the drama. Dr, um.” She looked at the waiting physician.

“Bowers.”

“Dr Bowers, let's assume Ozzie doesn't have insurance, if he does, great, but if he doesn't Lena will cover his hospital bills.”

The Dr looked at them awkwardly. “I am sorry, but that isn't how it works.”

Sam glared at her. “Do you know the name Lena Luthor?” When the Dr nodded she carried on. “Then you know she has more money than the Catholic church, that man laying in there is her friend. I can speak on her behalf, she will pay the bill. Hell if you give him a private room and extra Jello she will probably put another wing on your hospital.”

The group finally relaxed enough to let out a small laugh. The Dr look skeptical.

Sam pulled out her purse. “Here. Go and run his current bill and use this.” She handed over a similar card to the one that Lena had first given Ozzie.

The Dr took the card. “Ill be back in a moment, I can take you to see Lena then. It looks worse than it is and she is a little out of it so I can only take a couple of you.”

“When can we see Russel ma'am? Gunner asked.

“Not for a while I'm afraid. He's going to be in ICU for a while, it could be a few days before we move him depending on the swelling.”

Sam started sobbing, holding onto Ruby who had tears in her eyes. “He's gonna be OK mom, right?” She looked at the adults in the room, all of whom were quick to confirm that he would be. Sam held her a little tighter.

Tucker decided to lighten the mood. “She gave us one of those card to get us kitted out, no idea we could have bought a hospital with it.”

Sam wiped her nose inelegantly on her sleeve. “Oh honey you could have probably bought California with it.”

The Seals looked at each other in shock. 

Alex didn't take her eyes off Kara. She hadn't said anything since the Dr came out, Alex had a feeling she might still be in shock. The Dr returned with the card and told them that she could only take two people up to see Lena.

Sam look at Alex and understood that Kara would need her there. She nodded.

Alex stepped forward. “We'll go.” She kept her arm around Kara as they followed the Dr to a private room.

It was dark inside, the light kept deliberately low. Kara walked in, her stomach unsettled, she stood un-moving by the entrance.

Alex walked up to the bed and sat down next to Lena taking her right hand. Lena was a mess. Her hair was covered in blood still, her face was clean which meant you could see the swelling around her nose and eyes and the clean line on her cheek with a half dozen tiny stitches in. Alex looked at them closely, glad to see they were tiny and wouldn't leave much of a scar. Her arm was in a sling, taped up to her body to protect it. 

“Hey Irish. Your mini army is downstairs, they all want to come up and say hi but the Dr's are so far holding them back. Kara's here. She's lurking at the door like a dork. Probably trying to find all the reasons that this is her fault.” Alex joked.

Lena opened her eyes, as much as she could. “Not your fault baby. Never your fault.” Her voice was croaked and Kara finally snapped out of it and rushed to her bedside, Alex only just getting out of the way.

“I'm so sorry, I should have been there. I should have stopped it. I'm so sorry.” Kara was sobbing loudly. 

Alex stood in the corner, her hands gripped so tightly she could feel the blood being cut off. When she got hold of that son a bitch she was going to rip him apart with her bare hands.

Lena groaned as she tried to move. “What's wrong, are you OK? Do you need the nurse?” Kara looked around frantically. 

“Kar. Need a cuddle.” Lena patted the side of the bed.

“I don't want to hurt you.” Kara whispered back.

Alex stepped forward. “I brought this from your lab, had a feeling we'd need it if we didn't want Kara to break things while she panicked.” She handed over the box to Kara who grabbed it.

“You brought our sex box?” She smiled.

Alex gagged and Lena chuckled before groaning again. “Nice Kara. Nice.”

Kara plugged it in and climbed on the bed curling up with Lena. It was the first time in hours that Alex had seen her calm down.

“I'm gonna let the others know you are OK. The army is down there with Sam and Ruby.”

“Don't let Ruby come in.” Lena croaked. “Not like this. They told me someone helped but not who. Is someone hurt?”

“Ozzie was there, he tried to protect you.” Alex explained Ozzie's injuries and she could see the pain on Lena's face as she told her.

“Is Sam with him?”

Alex shook her head. “They wont let her see him, he's in ICU. Apparently it's hospital policy.”

Lena groaned again making Kara sit up. “What do you need?”

“Get Director in here.”

Alex rushed out of the door to the nurses station. She was perplexed to see them rush to make phone calls rather than brush her off. “I guess the name really does open doors.”

Alex stood by doorway trying not to listen to the softly spoken words shared between Lena and her sister. She nearly choked when a few minutes later, a well dressed woman appeared at Lena's door. She knocked gently, Alex moved aside to let them in.

“Ms Luthor, I hope you are comfortable as can be. Is there anything we can get for you?”

Lena pulled Kara's head down so she could see the woman. “The man that was brought in with me. Can you see that he is given the very best care, my company will be paying his bill.”

The admin nodded. “Of course. Anything else?”

“Hospital policy, no one can visit in ICU. I'll give you a 2 million dollar pledge right now if you let Sam Arias and his 3 brothers see him.”

Alex could see the admins eyes light up, it was almost cartoon like. “I can only give them 15 minutes. I'll make the call downstairs.”

Lena nodded. “Thank you. Told ya Alex, we rich people are assholes.”

Alex laughed. She took her hand. “Just worry about getting better. Kara is gonna stay here until we can get you home. I'll take care of everything. I'll take Maggie over to play with the monkeys so they don't get lonely. You just get better.” She squeezed her hand as she realized Lena was drifting out to sleep.

****

Alex went back to the people waiting downstairs. “Rubes, let's go find some ice cream around here. We can send some up for Kara. I'll tell you how Lena is doing OK?” She looked at Maggie and intimated she come with them.

Ruby walked over and took her hand. “We'll be 20 minutes Sam OK?”

Sam looked confused but just nodded. Just as Alex and Ruby were out of sight, Dr Bowers came over with her clipboard. “Ms Arias, Ms Luthor has apparently got friends in high places. I can take you and Mr Phillips' brothers to see him. Just 15 minutes though and I must ask that you keep as quiet as possible.”

Sam jumped up and followed, the seals followed her in silent protection.

****

  
  



	13. Walking on Thin Ice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brace yourselves

** Chapter 13 **

** Walking on Thin Ice **

__ Walking on thin ice  
I'm paying the price  
For throwing the dice in the air 

_ -Yoko Ono _

****

The following evening, the ambulance carrying Lena back to her apartment was followed solemnly by a pair of motorcycles. When it reached her apartment, the drivers came around the back to open the doors and lower Lena in her wheelchair. She had originally argued about getting in one until she tried to walk with her cracked ribs and the massive amount of painkillers in her system.

Maggie and Alex parked their bikes out of the way and took the chair from the ambulance drivers, wheeling her up to her building entrance.

The two security guards working the desk ran to the doors to open them both. When Lena was inside, they walked quickly to the elevator doors to send them to her penthouse.

“You need anything Ms Luthor, shopping, high shelves, that kind of thing, you just ring down OK?” One of them spoke up as they waited for the doors. Lena smiled kindly at them.

“Nice building management you got here Luthor.” Maggie quipped.

“I am the building management. I own the building.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Of course you do. C'mon Rockefeller, let's get you home.”

The ride up was quiet, Lena was half out of it and desperately wondering where Kara was. The Superhero had stayed by her side, not leaving until earlier this afternoon. Lena hadn't seen her since and was a little put out that she hadn't been around when Lena was sent home.

Lena was surprised that the door to her apartment was already unlocked and they all walked in. There was a chorus of greetings as she came around the corner into her living room.

“Hey! Welcome home Lena.” Sam came over and hugged her gently. Sam had dark circles under her eyes and looked about as rough as Lena felt. She hugged her back as much as she could with one arm. “I'm so sorry Sam. We'll do anything that's needed for Ozzie OK? He's gonna be fine. He's been through too much to quit now, I know it. I'm just so sorry that he got caught up in this.”

Sam crouched down. “Don't. Ozzie told me how much happier he was since he started working for you and met me and Ruby. He did what he has always done, stood up for his unit.” The two women hugged a little longer, both crying gently. When Sam moved back, Ruby came over and put her arms around Lena. “I'm so glad you are OK.” 

“Me too Rubes, m'gonna be sore for a bit and probably stuck indoors, so maybe you can read to me for a change?”

Ruby grinned at her. “Like Moby Dick!” And she started laughing much to Lena's confusion.

“How you doing there Irish?” Gunner put his arm on her good shoulder and knelt down next to her. He drew his finger under the scar on her cheek. “Don't forget, chicks dig scars.”

Lena smiled and pulled his forehead next to hers. “Thank you.” She whispered.

Tucker came over next. “Let's get you out of the iron horse and somewhere comfy.” He gently lifted her out of the chair, ever careful of her injuries and walked her to the couch. 

Everyone came and sat around her except Twofer who was fiddling around with her giant TV. He picked up his phone and made the last connection. The TV screen flickered to life showing what looked like a blurry night sky. “Supergirl, the package has been delivered, repeat, the package is delivered, over.”

He walked back and sat on the floor at Lena's feet. The screen suddenly whipped around showing Kara in 4k clarity.

Lena smiled at her giant grinning girlfriend.

“ _Evening Eh! Here we are at Marineland Canada. I made this little contraption so I can fit my phone on my head hands free and you can watch!”_

Alex groaned. “Oh God Kara no.” There was laughter all around the room. Alex looked at Maggie. “Did you know?” Maggie grinned.

_ Kara turned the camera around and activated the phone light that beamed across the aquarium and the lone whale swimming around below her. “So they have one last sea panda here, her name is Kiska. Canada says that they wont take any more whales in captivity, so I thought, how about we speed things up! K bear with me, cause it's not like you can just pick these things up under your arm. I tried but I kinda dropped one and then it wouldn't trust me. So I have a system now! I got this huge net thingy from a fishing port in China, so I just kinda scoop them up, make sure they are settled and voila!“ _

There was some weird angled shots of Kara swooping down before she finally caught the unsuspecting creature in her net. There was a round of applause from the watching group around Lena's couch including Alex who had decided to just go with it.

When the whale was settled in the net, the screen fell into a blur that made the viewers motion sick as Kara sped across the land masses toward the ocean somewhere. She came to a stop and tilted the camera down so people could see the large cargo, lit up and swinging in the air.

“ _So I spotted a pod of sea pandas nearby, I'm gonna see if Kiska likes them.”_

The camera dropped down as Kara flew to the top of the water, there was some rustling and then a giant splash which covered the camera and it's wearer making everyone laugh. Kara followed along behind the newly free Kiska before she hovered over her and zapped her with the anti tracker. She stayed nearby as Kiska reached the pod. There was some clicking and grunting, the whales splashed around each other on screen before apparently a consensus was reached and Kiska was accepted. Kara followed them for a while as they swam off. She turned the camera around to face her. “Hey Lena. I wanted you to know that operation Sea Panda Freedom is continuing while you were out of action. Hope this made you smile. Welcome home baby. Love you, see you soon!”

The camera cut out and the room erupted in cheers and applause. 

Alex handed her a copy of the latest Catco publication where an article bylined by Kara Danvers explained that Guardian was considered a terrorist after his violent attack on both Lena and Ozzie. It listed all of Lena's achievements since leaving L-corp, her children's hospital, the lodgings for the parents, her water filtration system that had cleaned up the local waterways and was now on its way to Africa to help with the lack of fresh water systems. Every charitable act Lena had ever performed, even some she had no clue Kara knew about was listed. Then there was Ozzie's testament, his service record, his medals, his sacrifice for his country. The most charitable of National Cities elite and her saviour the war hero who was still in a coma. Both violently attacked without any provocation by the so called Guardian of National City. By the time Lena finished the article, complete with quotes from people that had worked for her at L-Corp all but calling for her beatification, the police chief singing Lena's praises for her donations to the widows and orphans, the fire commissioner talking about how Lena had paid for the college education of two of the kids of their fallen brothers with no fanfare or press. The local church, Father Sebastian had explained that each year at Christmas Lena had picked up the tab for feeding the local poor and homeless. 

Kara had dug up every good thing she had ever done it seemed. Then there was the interview with Ozzies unit, they told how he had saved their lives by laying down fire to cover their exit before going back to carry out a fallen comrade, despite having been shot in the leg and the shoulder, when he took a bullet to the throat from a sniper.

Guardian now had a giant target on his back. 

That explained Kara's absence, Lena had no idea how she had got all that information in just a few hours.

As she put the article down, there was a whooshing from the balcony as Kara stepped forward to applause, carrying a giant stuffed sea panda under her arm. She walked over to Lena, knelt down and took her hands. 

“I missed you, sorry I wasn't here, I wanted to do something to make you smile.” She handed over the giant stuffed whale.

Lena chuckled. “It worked. And you brought me a friend?”

“I think we should call it Kiska, in honour of her freedom.” Kara grinned. “They had them in the gift shop, I couldn't resist.”

“Oh God, you stole it?” Alex shook her head.

“I left cash! Honest! And I left enough to cover the door handle that I kinda had to break to get to it. But look at it! Look Alex! How could I not.” She grinned unrepentant.

“K I think that's enough excitement, let's leave Lena to get settled.” Sam stood up and started rounding them all up and out of the door. They all stopped to hug Lena as they left. 

“You're staying?” Lena looked over at Maggie who hadn't moved from the end of the couch.

“Yeah, you're pretty fucked up, Kara is adamant that she wants to get hold of this Guardian dude so I'm taking the first shift.”

Lena glared at her. “I don't want you looking after me, you're gonna make me laugh and my ribs hurt.”

“Are you kidding? I'm the perfect person to look after you, you clearly need a bath and I've already seen you naked, riding Kara like a champ with your tits bouncing all over the place, so we don't even need to feel embarrassed.” Maggie grinned.

Lena burst out laughing. “Ow, ow, ow, see? This is why I don't want you here. Fuck that hurts. I wont survive if you stay here.”

When every one had finally left, leaving Maggie and Lena in peace, she took a deep breath, glad to be home. “I smell terrible.” She scrunched her face up.

Maggie looked over sympathetically. “Yeah, that's the blood in your hair. they couldn't really do much for you at the hospital because Kara was surgically attached to you. Pretty sure she growled at the nurses.”

Lena smiled. “She does get very protective. C'mon, let's get this out of the way, I really need a bath and God help me, I am gonna need your help.” She lowered her eyes. “I'm pretty sure I'm black and blue under here, I don't want Kara to see that.”

Maggie moved over and sat next to her. “Hey now, you could gain 200lb and Kara would still think you were the prettiest girl in the world and fight anyone who said otherwise.” She smiled.

Lena smiled back. “It's not that, Kara doesn't deal well with seeing people she loves hurt. If she sees it right now, I think, well, I don't want her to go down that path. They can arrest this Guardian idiot and deal with him through the courts.”

“Yeah, between all of them, it's gonna get messy. Alex has decided that as you are clearly not a threat to Kara, then you're part of the family, so between the two of them, I don't fancy his chances at getting to court honestly.” She tapped Lena's knee and stood up. “Stay there. Gonna run you a bath, then we can dose you up on happy pills and I'm gonna film you while you're stoned.”

Lena shook her head trying not to laugh as Maggie wandered off to her bathroom.

****

James watched the instructional video one again, hand wrapped in a cloth over the wound on his arm. Any gunshots or knife wounds at a hospital were immediately reported to the police and he couldn't risk it. He read Kara's article, her sonnet to Lena Luthor and shook his head at her stupidity. He replayed the video one last time before grabbing the superglue and attempting to seal the wound closed. Gritting his teeth at the pain in his forearm, he wiped the area clean, pleased to at least see it holding firm and the bleeding stop.

He shut the laptop down, deciding he should make an appearance at work. The Guardian story was picking up steam online, he couldn't just hide out at home as much as he wanted to.

There was a knock at his door, he wandered over and before the door had fully opened there was an explosion of pain in his mouth. He rolled backwards with the force, bringing his hand to his mouth to confirm his lip had split wide open. He attacker walked in casually, gently kicking the door closed and James got a good luck at him. The man was truly stacked, he had a passing thought that he looked like one of the Russian bad guys in a bond movie.

“You would probably have been killed after the bomb went off, but it would have at least been a clean death, you could join your alien girlfriend in the afterlife without seeing it coming.”

Despite the clear danger James grabbed on to the phrasing his guest used. He looked up from the floor. “What do you mean? The bomb's only going to remove their powers, not kill them.”

The man laughed. “Yeah this is why you were chosen, too fucking stupid to see the bigger picture. That bomb is going to deliver a chemical package into the atmosphere that will remove all alien life from the planet, and you helped to deliver it.” He kicked towards James who barely rolled back in time, the foot grazing the side of his face. “I have a message for you, from Lillian Luthor.” He picked James up and threw him across his apartment. “It's gonna really fucking hurt as well.” He stormed over to pick James up, lifting him into the air. “Families are weird aren't they?” He spoke as though commenting on the weather. “Those two broads really do seem to hate each other. But Lena is still a Luthor, and to her mama, anyone else is inferior. You tried to kill a Luthor and she takes that personally. So no quick and painless death for you.” He drew back his giant fist.

James caught the flash of yellow on the cabinet now at eye level as he swung uselessly in the air. He grabbed it and prayed it would charge in time. He thrust the unit as hard as he could into the mans eyes, flicking the button to charge. He stumbled to his feet as his tormentor grabbed at his face, eyes watering from the impact. The short whine of the machine reached a pinnacle and James held it against the body in front of him for as long as the static noise of the taser lasted.

He hit the ground hard. James had just run out of options. There was only one thing left open to him. He grabbed his laptop and headed to the DEO.

****

Lena sat back in the tub to take the strain off of her ribs. Maggie was washing the last of the blood out of her hair. She tipped her head forward to keep the bulk of the stained water off the floor and rinsed the shampoo out.

“There you go, all clean.” She stood up to grab a bathrobe off the back of the door before looking back at the battered body of Lena sitting meekly in the bath. “I don't think you are gonna be able to hide all that from Kara you know.”

Lena looked at the violent black and blue marks on her torso. “I know. I can see her eyes change when she looks at my face.” She looked up at Maggie. “I have no idea how I am going to get out of this tub without any upper body strength.”

Maggie winked at her. “Lucky for you, I'm stronger than I look.” She pulled her hoodie off, quickly followed by her pants leaving her in her athletic sports wear. “Ok! Grab hold of me, use your legs, I'll pull you up. Ready?”

Lena nodded, put her arm around Maggie's neck and they both groaned loudly as she managed to pull them upright, splashing water all over the floor.

“I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for this.” An amused voice came from the doorway.

Lena looked over and smirked. “It's a really long story and not nearly as much fun as this might make it look. Maggie Sawyer, meet Lois Lane.”

Maggie grinned. “Normally I would shake your hand, Lena isn't heavy, but she sure is slippery right now.” 

“Will anyone else be seeing me naked today?” Lena quipped as Maggie put her arms gently into the bathrobe.

“I left Clark on the balcony, so you should be safe.” 

They got Lena settled in to her bed and Lois called Clark in.

He looked at the damage he could see and his jaw tightened. “We came over to help Kara look for this vigilante. Lois is going to stay with you for a while, I'm going to take Ms Sawyer over to the DEO.” His eyes drifted to her her bedside table. “Why is there a giant bell there?”

Lena laughed. “Kara wanted to make sure I could call for help. I don't think it occurred to her that I cant pick it up.”

Superman smiled. “Get well soon Ms Luthor. Just let Lois know if you need anything.”

Lena nodded. “Look out for Kara for me. She doesn't cope well with anger. Don't let her do anything she will regret.”

“That's why we're here.” He smiled. “Ms Sawyer, shall we?”

They walked outside leaving Lena and Lois alone. The older woman looked at the bruises covering Lena's face and falling out of eye line down her chest. “You want some scotch in your coffee?”

“Oh hell yes!”

****

Sam and Ruby were hanging out at the DEO so Alex could keep a surreptitious eye on them. Lena's mini army was out with the other agents, Superman and Kara looking for any sign of Guardian. Maggie was keeping up with police chatter from a terminal nearby and helping to coordinate the efforts between the two. 

Alex sat next to her, watching the video for about the 28th time of the fight outside Lena's office. “Maggie look at this a second.” Maggie rolled her chair over to see what her partner had spotted. “Watch after Ozzie shoots him, he drops the gun and does it look like he grabs something else?”

Maggie squinted at the super slow motion video. “Maybe. Would help if there was context.”

“I think there is, look. He flings himself at Guardian and for a micro second after Guardian throws him at the car, it looks like he is going to grab his arm. I think Ozzie stabbed him!” She stood up excitedly. “Can you get your guys to search around the area, see if they can find something sharp, if we can get a DNA sample we've got him. And have them check the hospitals for stab wounds, I've seen the kind of gear those boys carry, it would have left some damage.” Alex was thrumming with excitement, this was the closest they had to a clue in weeks. She ran into J'onn's office to share her findings, as she walked out she saw Supergirl fly in the door. “Any news?”

Kara shook her head. “I wanted to crash on the sunbed for an hour, don't wanna burn out.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “You could always go home to Lena, get some sleep.” She ignored Kara's glare and brought her up to date on what she might have found out from the video. Kara was about to question her further when Alex's eyes widened, looking over her shoulder.

“What happened to you?” She asked as James walked in the door.

“Cadmus. Remember that source I told you about? The one that said Lena had told Lillian Supergirl's identity?”

Alex put her arm in front of Kara stopping her moving forward when she heard that again, Kara was too on edge right now for this. “What about it?”

James touched the bruise on his mouth. “I asked him to come and talk to you directly. I'm guessing he got cold feet.”

Alex scrunched her face up. “Where is he now?”

James walked over to the consoles to see what was happening. “I don't know, but we have a bigger problem. Lillian Luthor has been building a chemical weapon, she has the last component now. Apparently it was hidden in one of those labs that Lena's henchmen raided. I don't know how she got it.” He let them fill in the gaps themselves.

Alex held Kara back again in annoyance. “Jesus Christ. When is it being released?”

James shook his head. “Don't know, he attacked me before I could ask him anything else. I overpowered him and he ran out. I would have called first, but my phone was smashed.”

Kara stormed over to where Winn was sitting to get away from James before she said or did something she would get in trouble for. As Alex watched her brush past James, she caught a wince on his face. Time slowed to a standstill as Alex watched a line of blood run down James's arm. A singular droplet falling to the floor in slow motion. Alex look up at James, her face curious.

“What? Does my face look that bad?” He touched his mouth where his lip was swollen.

Alex shook her head and forced a smile. “No, sorry, just thinking about Cadmus.” She lied. She walked over to J'onn's office and grabbed his communication device. When she was certain that Kara was distracted with Winn, she clicked to a private channel and whispered. “Superman I need you back at the DEO urgently. Come in casually and stand near Kara.”

J'onn looked at her in concern as Superman acknowledged her. She walked out of the office, followed by a curious J'onn as Superman flew in. As per Alex's request, he went straight over to Kara.

Sam came out with Ruby who was staring wide eyed at the Superhero. He winked at her and Sam smiled as the grip on her hand increased a hundred fold.

“Superman? What are you doing here?” James asked almost angrily.

“Hi Jimmy, helping Kara out, trying to find the vigilante that nearly killed Lena.”

James fought against the scowl on his face. 

But Alex saw it. 

She stormed down the stairs toward him and grabbed his arm forcefully, causing him to cry out in pain. “Something wrong with your arm James? Or should I say Guardian?” She yanked up his sleeve to see the knife wound that Ozzie had left him.

“What the hell Alex. I told you, I was in a fight with that Cadmus agent!” He yelled at her, eyes wide in fear, yanking his arm back.

J'onn came over and stood next to Alex. His eyes staring at James. “What have you done?” He spoke quietly, the pain in his voice clear.

James back away from him. “I'm not the fucking villain here! None of you would listen! Because of Lena, there is a bomb ready to wipe all aliens off the face of the earth. I told you she was dangerous!” 

You could have heard a pin drop.

Before all Hell broke loose.

Alex felt a gust of wind next to her, followed milliseconds later by another as Superman grabbed a screaming Kara before she reached James. The dual wind rushes knocked Alex to one side and James to the other.

Kara was screaming in rage, desperately fighting to get out of Superman's grip. Her eyes blazed red, Superman pulled her head into his chest almost too late, a scorched line ripped through the building at James's eye level. “Let me go! Dammit Kal let me go! I will fucking end you! I swear to Rao I will end you!” She screamed at James.

J'onn rushed over to help Clark keep Kara away from him. Maggie looked over just in time to see Sam running toward James, she nearly fell down the stairs as she rushed to intercept. Keeping her face tucked away from Sam's flailing arms, she held her bodily as she screamed obscenities at James.

Winn stood at his desk, his mouth open in shock at what was going on below as Superman and J'onn struggled to contain a furious Kara, while Maggie, now aided by Alex tried to keep Sam from killing James.

The DEO agents stood there, weapons drawn but unable to figure out where to point them. In the mayhem that was now the DEO control room, no one noticed a small figure silently run over to the terrified looking James, she let out a piercing banshee like cry and attacked him, little hands striking out where ever they could reach. James grabbed hold of Ruby to keep her off of him, she dropped to the floor, pushed with all her anger and knocked him down. Alex had a brief moment of pity as she knew what was coming.

Ruby landed a brutal kick between James's legs. “You selfish fucking bastard! Do you know what you did?” She kicked his stomach. “My mom was finally happy! She was happy and you ruined it! You selfish, selfish selfish bastard!” She punctuated each word with a kick to James's curled up body.

Sam came to her senses and moved to grab Ruby, holding her tight, whispering calming words to her daughters sobbing body.

Kara finally wore herself out screaming and fighting against Superman and the Martian. She slumped against Clark who held her gently.

J'onn took advantage of the almost quiet by yelling at the agents uselessly standing around. “Get him out of here. Holding cell, now. Move!”

The agents dragged James, half walking, half carried out of the room.

“I'm taking Kara home to be with Lena for a while. Maggie can you drive Sam and Ruby over?”

Maggie nodded her agreement while Clark picked a devastated Kara up and flew her home.

****

Sam was curled up in the spare room, her hands running through Ruby's hair as she slept quietly next to her.

Kara was sat on the bed with Lena, explaining everything that had gone on at the DEO. Lena stared at her wide eyed in horror as she revealed that James was Guardian and that Cadmus now had access to a dirty bomb that would wipe out alien life on earth, but they had no idea what it was, where it was and when it would be used.

Lena persuaded an exhausted and dishevelled Kara to climb on the bed and take a nap with her. As Kara was drifting off, Lena groaned as she reached over for her phone.

“What're you doing?” She mumbled.

Lena started typing on her phone. “Making a note to buy Ruby a pony.”

Kara smiled and drifted off to sleep.


	14. Keep On Lovin You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay, I can't begin to tell you how much has landed on my desk this month. I am gonna write one more chapter to tie it all up. The Cadmus bomb is going to be moved to the sequel that I may or may not write, but it wont effect things here, nothing is left open other than they have the means to make one. I can tell you, it takes a while to make a bomb so perfectly realistic to make it a sequel :) Final chapter should be this week, again, apologies I am being pulled in way too many directions currently.

**Keep On Lovin You**

_You should have seen by the look in my eyes, baby  
There was somethin' missin'  
You should have known by the tone of my voice, maybe  
But you didn't listen _

_-Cigarettes After Sex_

****

They stood in a group, watching through the one way glass at a dishevelled James. He had a couple of visible bruises, a split lip and was slightly hunched over likely from the various kicks that Ruby had landed. Superman had left, taking Lois back to Metropolis with him. He said he would be available but he couldn't bring himself to speak with James yet. No one had scorned him for it.

J'onn had explained what he had found out from James in the last 48 hours. At first he had tried to backpedal his involvement with Cadmus, but eventually it came out that he had been voluntarily working with them after they gained video of James having supposedly shot someone. He had tried to insist that Lena was behind the bomb but with J'onn pushing at his mind he couldn't keep the lie going. He was the one that took the Isotope from the DEO, but he believed Lillian when she said it was just to neutralize the alien powers. When J'onn had pressed him to why, he said it was to protect Kara and get her away from Lena. He told the truth about the fight with the Cadmus agent, that Lillian had sent to kill him for his attack on Lena.

J'onn was also stuck on the subject of what to do now. When James asked what he planned to do, he told him that he would hand him over to the regular authorities. James had stated smugly that they should let him go. He wanted to leave National City. He told J'onn that he had a kill switch. If anything happened to him, if he was incarcerated, he would release Kara and Clark's identity. He would also lift the veil on the DEO. J'onn explained to everyone that he saw no other option, but to let James go and make sure he left National City, leaving them free to deal with the incoming Cadmus threat.

There was a cacophony of noise at J'onn's last statement. It was Lena who spoke first spoke over the random yelling. Kara had not wanted to bring her in, insisting she stay at home and rest, but Lena wanted to see him, see the man that had tried to take everything from her. Kara relented and brought her in.

“I want to talk to him.”

There was a chorus of complaints at that. From Kara's gentle concern, to J'onn's arguments on protocol and finally Alex's statement that she wasn't letting Lena get within grabbing distance of that fucking psycho.

It was Alex's defence that meant the most to her. None the less, she had made up her mind.

“I'm going with you.” Kara crossed her arms in front of the door.

“He's been asking for you, constantly.” J'onn explained to Kara.

“So? Let's give him what he wants.” Kara snapped.

Lena sighed and put her good arm around Kara's waist. “He wants to speak to you to justify his behaviour, you going in there is the best thing you can give him. When he understands that you want nothing to do with him, we might have a chance of getting through his madness.”

Kara growled. “To what end? So he can apologise? He nearly killed you, he might have killed Ozzie. He's threatened my identity to escape any consequences for his actions, he's burned his bridges with Cadmus, he's no use to anyone right now, and frankly I don't see any way to break him of his view that you are the one that's dangerous to me. Don't ask me to let you walk in there alone.”

“She wont be alone.” Twofer walked up to her, facing down her angry stare. Gunner and Tucker did the same.

Kara let out a deep sigh that Lena knew meant she was relenting. “Fine, but he so much as leans too far over that table I'm coming in.”

Lena kissed her cheek and left with Alex and the seals. She looked at James as she walked in and sat down in the chair opposite him. He was smaller than she remembered him being, and he reeked of anger. She wondered if the sight of her battered face would trigger any semblance of guilt on his face, but there was nothing, just hatred.

He thrust himself forward as far as his bound hands would allow him. “What do you want?” He snarled at her.

The three men with her instinctively moved to her side in warning. Lena ground her teeth as she imagined Alex trying to hold Kara in place.

Lena stared him down, not through some false bravado, but as a puzzle she couldn't quite put her finger on. Several opening lines ran through her mind but she settled on the easiest.

“Why?”

James wasn't expecting it. He didn't seem to grasp that anyone would ask him that.

Lena clarified. “Why do you want to kill me?”

“Because you're dangerous.”

Lena nodded. “Are you?”

James looked shocked. “Of course not! I'm not the one that is going to get Kara killed.”

“Aren't you? You took enhancements to your suit from a terrorist agency.”

“I didn't know that it was Cadmus.”

“Right.” Lena pondered. “You only found out when you killed someone.”

“That was an accident!” He pushed forward angrily.

“Sit your ass down, before I help you.” Gunner's threat sounded somehow more frightening with it's soft delivery.

“Then you stole an unknown chemical for them.” Lena continued

“I didn't know it would kill anyone.”

“Then you tried to kill the daughter of that group.”

James sighed. “No one was supposed to know it was me.”

Lena nodded again. “It seems to me, that out of the two of us, you are the far more dangerous one, if for no other reason than your rank stupidity. Oh I didn't know it was Cadmus, I didn't mean to shoot anyone, I didn't know the chemical bomb was real. Honestly, you're a fucking disaster waiting to happen.”

“I was trying to stop you from hurting Kara!” James slammed his hands on the desk in his anger.

“Congratulations, I wont have a chance to hurt Kara now, because of your efforts, she will likely die from the bomb that you helped create. You must be pleased with yourself.” She mocked him.

Alex looked at Kara in the other room. “What on earth is she trying to do in there?”

“I really don't know, but I think it's making her feel better, so.” Kara shrugged

“Cant you just mind wipe him?” Alex looked at J'onn.

J'onn smiled. “If he had just met her in passing, but his memories are too tied up with everything to do with Superman and Supergirl. As for Lena, I have a feeling she knows exactly what she is doing.”

James glared at her. “I love Kara, I only ever wanted to keep her safe.”

Lena laughed. “You don't love Kara. You want to control her. She didn't see you as the mild mannered photographer, so you put on a suit that didn't fit to show her you were a good match for her, but all you got was her chasing you around, one calamity after another, cutting into her much cherished free time. You couldn't tell her who you were, so you made someone else out to be the bad guy. All you had to do was show her how close to danger she was, then you could swoop in and save her. Christ it's like a really bad aftershave commercial. You don't even realize that Kara is not a damsel that needs saving, she is an incredible woman that needs her friends more than anything. Why wasn't that enough for you James? If she meant so much to you, why couldn't you give her what she needed?” She raised her finger when he looked as though he had a reply. “Oh don't bother answering that, you couldn't because it was never about her, it was about you. You and your giant fucking ego. You didn't want to be another friend, you wanted her all to yourself, you wanted her power and you were jealous because you thought she gave it to someone else. And the irony, she didn't give any of her power away, I am still just another back up dancer, another person that supports her, the only difference between you and I? She chose to share my bed.”

James looked pained at that remark. “You don't know what you are talking about.”

“Your face says otherwise. All of this because you wanted to get in her pants. How very fucking romantic. Nothing says love like chaos and destruction. I often wondered if half of Lex's problem with superman was based on the same thing. Good job James, perhaps you can get the cell next door and compare how you went wrong.” Lena folded her arm across her chest and smirked at him.

“I have a kill switch.” He smirked back at her.

“Ah yes, another loving gesture. If I am held responsible for my actions, I am going to ruin the life of the woman I love. Classy.”

“Fuck you!” He spat out.

“No, you tried that, and like everything else, you failed spectacularly. And here we all are because of it. Because of you, their...” She look at the men standing silently behind her. “... _Our_ , brother is in a coma and we don't know if he is going to live.” She paused when she felt her throat close. “After all he has sacrificed, he could die. Sam and Ruby are shattered, they're sat with him in hospital, watching the machines breath for him. So please tell me again James. Of the two of us, you and I, who is the more dangerous?”

James fell back in his chair, visibly broken. Lena had laid it all out and taken away all of his excuses.

Lena nodded at Twofer who helped her get up from her chair, as they went to walk out, she leaned down and whispered into his ear. “They are going to have no choice but to let you go. I suggest you leave National City at the first opportunity. If you come near me and mine again, you will find out just how much of a Luthor I am. If anything happens to Kara because this bomb comes to fruition, there is nowhere you can hide that I wont find you and then God help you James.”

She walked out the door with her team.

As she closed the door behind her, she heard him start screaming for Kara.

“That is not a well man.” Tucker offered quietly.

Lena hummed her agreement.

****

Kara took the call from J'onn a few days later. She was sitting in Lena's lab with her because getting Lena to sit still was an exercise in futility so she agreed to take her to and from the Lab where she could at least keep her mind occupied. Tucker had agreed to sit in with them in case Kara had to go on a Supergirl emergency, he was currently trying to read a newspaper while Queequeg tore bits of it off to play with.

“So we just let him go?” She paced around with the phone to her ear. “I know, but it feels wrong. And who's to say he wont out me anyway?” She started to float up to Tashtego. “Having to wait and see doesn't sound like a good plan to me. I suppose. Fine. I will.” She floated back down, monkey in her arms to where Lena was sat at her computer drawing schematics.

“J'onn sends his best wishes. James is being released tonight.”

“What are they doing with him?” Tucker called over.

“Driving him to his apartment to grab his stuff, then following his car to the state line.”

Lena chuckled. “So they are basically running him out of town? How very Western. Are they going to keep an eye on him?”

Kara shrugged. “As much as any potential threat I suppose. I don't like it. Like don't we have enough to worry about with Cadmus popping up randomly without worrying about him as well?”

Lena had noticed that Kara wouldn't use his name. It was always _him_ , in a tone that left no mistake who she meant. “Nothing to be done now. Here, what do you think of this?”

Kara looked at the draft on screen. “What is it?”

“A theory at present. I'm working on calculations for a singular pod that can withstand the pressure of your flight speed and protect the contents inside.”

Kara looked at the numbers. “So I carry the pod, the pod carries the person. Cool.” Her face lit up. “Oh! Oh! Oh! You can come on Sea Panda Rescue missions!” She clapped excitedly.

Lena rolled her eyes. “I was actually thinking about Parisian dinners, exotic beaches, romantic weekend getaways, but of course, Sea Panda Rescue missions as well.”

Kara blushed. “I have some work to do on my romantic skills don't I?”

Tucker rustled his newspaper in the corner. “Ya think?”

****

James was seething as he drove out late in the evening toward the state line. The constant headlights from the DEO car in his mirror. J'onn had told him that if he mentioned Supergirl, Superman or the DEO in any way, they would enforce their contract and bury him in the deepest hole they could find. He had looked to Alex to see if she could be reached but was sure from her silence that she couldn't. Well, he had tried. When it all fell apart, and it would, then they would realize what they had done. They would beg for his help. For now he was going to head somewhere East, a new start. Maybe change his name. He had been given barely enough time to pack his suitcase and his cameras before his escort was demanding the he had to leave.

His irritation rose when he approached the large sign. _You are now leaving National City, have a safe journey._ He would return, as soon as Lena revealed herself for what she was, he would be able to return. The headlights swerved off at the last exit and he drove into the desert alone.

He flicked through various radio channels before settling on a news channel. He was barely 10 miles into the journey when the radio went to static. The dash lights started flickering, the engine spluttered and died. He tried to turn the car over, nothing happened. He pounded on the steering wheel in annoyance before pulling out his cell phone. He didn't know whether to be annoyed by the lack of signal or the lack of who he would call anyway. Having no better options, he stepped out of the car into the cooling air of desert evening. As luck would happen, he spotted a pair of lights heading in his direction. He stood in the road waving his arms, relieved when the car began to slow.

“Hey! Boy am I am glad you came along. My car just upped and died.” He smiled as three men stepped out of the large white hired vehicle. The bright lights from the van gave more than enough light for him to see their faces and his heart sank.

“Ms Luthor isn't the only one that can get hold of fancy gadgets.” Tucker clicked a button and James's car sprang back to life.

James ran back to the car door intending to get away when Tucker pressed the button again and his car died. Now more angry than scared he got back out and looked at the silent figures.

“So this is payback? For what I did to your friend? I'm sorry OK? I didn't mean for anyone else to get hurt, he wasn't supposed to be there!” He yelled.

“But he was there, and he is hanging by a thread in the hospital because he was there.” Gunner spoke up quietly.

“You cant blame me for that! I was trying to protect all of you. That woman will kill everyone you love if you don't stop her. Why cant anyone see that?” He pleaded with them.

Twofer shook his head. “You're half right. This isn't about vengeance. That's not how we work. We would have been happy for you to serve your time, but you managed to get out of that. What bothers me about you James? You're a threat. You're no different to the people we dealt with in Afghanistan. They have a set of beliefs about how things are and there is nothing you can do to change that and everyone around them pays for it.”

James scowled at him. “So Lena sent you to what? Kill me? Because I know who she is, she cant have me running around, gotta clean up the loose ends right? You just wont see it, Lena isn't like you, if you kill me, then you become the loose end.” He yelled at the sky in frustration. “She will turn on you.” He pointed at Twofer, his lips curled up in anger.

Twofer smirked and pulled his gun out. “Again, you're half right. Lena isn't like us. She would never condone this. It's not in her nature, despite what you think. No, Lena has no idea we're here. Right now she's curled up with her little blonde girlfriend being waited on hand and foot and pushing you to the back of her mind. And I'm sorry James, that's where you need to stay.”

He fired two shots in James's chest in quick succession. He walked over and put a third in between his eyes. He dragged the body and dumped it in the trunk before walking back to Gunner and Tucker who were holding shovels. “Big hole lads, cant have sand blowing over and showing the top of the car. Gonna be a long night.”

The two men walked into the desert while Twofer drove James's car out so they could see what they were doing under the headlights glare.

Three hours later, they were heading back into town. Twofer opened his phone and punched in some remembered numbers. It rang twice before a voice answered. “Agent Danvers? Sleep tight.” He disconnected and started playing with the radio dials.


	15. Eagle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very sorry about the patchy updates. Normally I write and there is an update once or twice a week until it is done. I had intended the same here but about 2 weeks in, my poor pupper (10 years old) had to have super invasive surgery, it took her another 2 weeks to walk properly. I had to have the house mildly renovated to put ramps in so she could get where she wanted to be. Then I had a mad client request that was prepared to pay me 5 times my rate if I could do something huge within a week rather than the usual 30 days. I agreed. She then took forever to get things done so I have been working at all hours to accommodate all the other clients I booked for when I should have been free. Then I kinda broke my ankle, again. Honestly so much shit has gone wrong since I started this I am thinking of declaring it cursed lol. I wanted to write so much more but I hated it hanging over my head and keeping people waiting, so I have left it open for a sequel if I am ever of a mind but I haven't left anything really hanging so I can mark this complete without guilt :)
> 
> I apologise for any glaring errors, English is, I think, my third language now so I can get my tenses all over the place especially when I am stressed out. Plus I learned English in England, French in France and I am now typing in Canada where they have much different ideas about English and French to what I am used to. Truly it's amazing any of this makes sense!   
> Thanks for all the feedback, it has been appreciated and so lovely hearing what people think.
> 
> Until next time mes anges

** Chapter 15 **

** Eagle **

_ Flying high, high, I'm a bird in the sky  
I'm an eagle that rides on the breeze  
High, high, what a feeling to fly  
Over mountains and forests and seas  
And to go anywhere that I please  _

_ -Abba _

****

_ 8 weeks later _

The group outside of the hospital shuffled around waiting. Alex was so highly strung she was practically vibrating though no one was quite sure why. Maggie said it was the standing still. Kara stood behind her making fun of her much to the Seals amusement. Maggie stood next to Lena talking away from the others. Lena's face now thankfully cleared of the bruising that had marred it for so long. She saw one of the finest plastic surgeons money could buy to make sure her nose was perfectly straightened and that her cheekbone was healed correctly. When he offered to remove the scar on her cheek she told him no. He was about to explain how simple the procedure was when Kara butt in. “Leave it, chicks dig scars.” Lena grinned up at her, before confirming her desire that the small scar was left alone. It was a battle scar, one that Lena felt she had rightly earned, she wasn't embarrassed about it, it said she was alive, it proved that she had a whole new family now and this scar was one more thing that took away from the Lena Luthor that was.

Plus Kara had convinced her one night that it gave her a slightly piratical air that was damn sexy. If Lena had decided to wear more flowing white shirts, tight pants and knee high leather boots well that was neither here nor there.

The air was turning chilly so the group stomped their feet to keep warm, blowing into their hands and checking the doors to see what was happening every time they opened. Finally the doors slid open and their wait was over.

Sam came through pushing Ozzie in his chair, Ruby proudly sat on his lap demanding they go faster in sign language. A cheer rang out from the people waiting that made Ozzie blush. His hair was nearly back to his crew cut length, a nasty scar ran down the side of his head barely covered by his light hair. He looked thinner, paler, but that was to be expected. The bolts and bars holding his broken leg together on full disgusting display. It wouldn't be too long before they could be removed and his extensive physio started. He waved to all the good cheers and made appropriate gestures to the more ribald comments from his squad. When all the goodnatured ribbing had died down, they set about figuring transportation. The Seals had come down in an Uber with Sam and Ruby, Lena in her new car, Maggie and Alex came on the bikes and Kara had flown in as Supergirl.

Lena broke the discussion by looking at her watch and calling for quiet. A few minutes later, a jeep drove into the car park followed by a black Humvee that looked far more tricked out than most. To everyone's confusion, Lena approached the man in the Jeep and signed some paperwork while the man in the parked Humvee jumped out and got in the Jeep and they drove away. Lena walked back to the Seals, tossing the keys to Twofer. “Company car, I doubt we are out of trouble just yet, so just in case.” The Seals yelled their approval and began peering around the car talking about all the gadgets and the general quality. The back had been transformed to get Ozzie's chair in, the mirrors around the back making it easy for him to face the back but see what was going on in front of him. Alex noticed that there were weapon holders all over the truck and was practically drooling.

“Hey Luthor, what's a girl got to do to get a nice ride like this from you?” She called over.

Lena smirked at her. “Take a good beating for me and I will have one at your door for you darling.”

There was more ribald cat calls at that before everyone got themselves sorted. The Seals piled in the new vehicle and with a childlike _pleeeeeease_ first from Ruby and then mockingly from the Seals, Sam relented and let her go with them. Sam confessed to Lena one night over a glass or three of wine that she could imagine a uniform in Ruby's future. They both prayed to the Gods above that she grew out of it. She climbed in the back with Ozzie and he described to her what everything did. Alex shut the door and watched them drive off to the waterfront. Maggie and Alex followed on the bikes, Sam climbed in Lena's new sporty car and Kara flew above to finish the bizarre convoy.

When they finally reached the waterfront, Gunner was telling Ozzie that they had been staying in the hostel while Lena had the house they had been squatting in renovated. He look confused and asked Lena if they were staying at the hostel instead?

“Nah, come and take a look Oz.” Tucker pushed his chair to the house next to Lena's lab. There was a small concrete ramp where the stairs were. Tucker pushed him in to the new place. Downstairs was now open plan to help him move around. There were 3 bedrooms upstairs, one of the downstairs rooms was turned into a bedroom for Ozzie. With the open plan he could reach the kitchen and bathroom and not feel he was dependant on anyone. He looked around smiling before he clapped joyously. 

There was a tentative knock on the door as Kara stuck her head in dressed as Supergirl. “Hey guys, look who I found hanging outside!” She dragged the young woman in her mid twenties to the main room. She looked quite overwhelmed at the Seals standing around. Even out of uniform they were quite imposing. Then of course there was Supergirl attached to her arm.

“Hello Marcia, thank you for meeting us a day before you start. Let's get you introduced.” She took her by the elbow over to Oz. “You need a nurse, the wounds still need cleaning, and possibly draining. Sam and I searched through hundreds of potential nurses. Marcia here is a physio and an RN so she is going to keep an eye on you while your brothers are out and about, then when your bolts are out and you can start physio, Marcia here is going to swap roles and get you walking again. She is highly qualified, understands ASL and most importantly, totally gay.”

Marcia looked mortified to have been outed in front of the quiet and deadly looking soldiers and Supergirl. Ozzie looked confused. He signed at Lena “Why is that most important?”

Lena laughed and looked at Sam with a raised eyebrow. Sam smiled at Ozzie. “Trust me, it was the most important thing to me.” 

Ozzie looked at her for a minute before clapping and smiling. He shook his head and opened his arms to her. Mindful of his bad leg, she sat on his lap and cuddled him. He kissed her gently and signed. “Only you.”

Everyone groaned.

“Oh, I have one last thing to help you out.” Lena spoke up excitedly. “Supergirl could you go get it for me?”

Kara nodded and rushed out of the door.

Ozzie signed at her. “You didn't have to do all this.”

Lena knelt down next to him, her hand in his. “Yes, I did. You saved my life, I don't feel in the least bit dramatic for saying that. James would have killed me, or at least left me horribly broken and unable to recover. You literally jumped into the line of fire for me and if it wasn't for your quick thinking with the watch, we would both be done for. So thank you, and I am so truly sorry that just when life was getting better for you, it has been set back a bit. So I will be doing this and anything else I can think of to make it easier for you. And I will be doing it happily. I am so very thankful for you and I know Kara especially is as well.”

“We all are.” Maggie spoke up with her arm around a nodding Alex. “What she said. Luthor takes some getting used to, but when you do get used to her, you want to keep her around.” She smiled at Lena.

“Here here!” Someone yelled.

Marcia looked around and quietly asked. “Whose Kara?”

“Kara Danvers, my gorgeous and over protective girlfriend.” Lena smiled. 

Supergirl came back in carrying what looked like a very heavy metal contraption. She pulled it apart, set the straps and tighteners showing an advanced looking wheelchair. “There you go! I tried it out, they are awesome. Lena designed it, then she got in touch with the veterans association and agreed to have them supplied with as many as they wanted at cost. She's so amazing!” She walked over to Lena and kissed her.

Alex slapped her hand over her face. “Jesus H Christ Kara! Secret Identity! Remember?”

Marcia looked like a gaping fish.

Alex turned to her. “Tell no one, or find yourself at the bottom of a very dark pit, understand?” She scowled.

Marcia nodded frantically, wondering what the hell she had signed on for.

“Ill get you a non disclosure tomorrow.” Alex sighed. “At this rate you might as well come out of the closet completely.”

Kara winced from within her place in Lena's arms. “My bad?”

Lena just laughed and kissed her. “Anyway! Guys if you can lift him into this chair.” The Seals picked him up as they had been taught to do while Marcia who had been shown the chair earlier, got it into position. They sat him down and strapped him in. When he was where he should be Lena walked over to demonstrate.

“When I was planning this out with the builder, I was thinking about making it wheelchair accessible, but while you can get around everywhere, everything else is still at waist height for regular people. So I figured out a lift system. Check this out. She showed him the levers to pull, then pressed a button on the arm console. “Those levers are brakes, the chair wont go anywhere until you sit back down. This button, will lift you up to standing height, perfectly balanced although you will probably feel a bit wobbly at first. Let's give it a whirl.” She pressed the button and Ozzie found himself raised fully upright, the pressure was off his legs and centred around his hips and waist putting him at eye level. The eyes in question were wide open in surprise.”

“You made these for the veterans?” He signed.

“Yes, but firstly I made it for you, because I cant imagine having to sit down and make a coffee or a sandwich or worse having to rely on asking people all the time. This is temporary for you, but for others this is their new normal and I wanted to help.” She blushed.

Ozzie wobbled a little making Sam and Tucker jump up to stabilize him. He held out his arms for Lena and hugged her as tight as he could. When he let her go, his eyes were wet. He signed slowly to make sure she understood him. “You Lena Luthor, are good people.”

Which made Lena's eyes wet. Then Kara's. Finally Alex, Sam, Maggie and the Seals.

Marcia looked at Ruby for help. Ruby shrugged. “I dunno, they get super emotional for a bunch of high achievers.”

****

They left Sam and the Seals to get settled in. Gunner said he would drive Ruby and Sam home later. Maggie, Lena, Kara and Alex walked outside and shut the door, all delicately dabbing at their eyes.

“Look at the colour of that water!” Maggie called out. “I don't think I have ever seen it that colour before, look you can see fish!” 

They all looked over the railings excitedly looking for fish.

“Is this because of your machine?” Alex asked in amazement.

Lena nodded proudly. “Yep, it is a certified success, I believe they are in mass production in several Arabian countries and some have already made their way to Western parts of Africa. But while I did need a testing ground, this was rather selfish. Look at that.” She pointed to the half a dozen fishermen standing on the boardwalk. There was a bait shop in one of the buildings she had bought on that strip. A coffee shop and cafe had also been given a lease as well, the tables spilling over outside. On the other side of the water, people were enjoying the clean water, several retrievers were flying in and out of the water to collect their balls. “It's just so pretty here now, I cant believe I spent so long at L-Corp rather than doing this.” She grinned at them.

“Talking of, there is an arrest warrant out for Lillian and her top level Cadmus people. They intend to try her in absentia, you believe that? That hardly ever happens, it means they are pretty damn sure they have her bang to rights. Apparently L-corp is fucked, the money has been seized while the financial forensic teams go through it to decide if any of it was used to aid Lillian in her crimes. Good job Luthor, you said you wanted it to burn.” Maggie slapped Lena on the back.

“I suppose now we just worry about finding out if they have the means to deploy that chemical bomb before they are found. And I still worry about James.” 

Kara automatically put her arms around her.

“I'm alright darling, I just mean I worry that he will turn up again and cause trouble for Supergirl and the DEO.”

Alex schooled her features. “I don't think James coming back will be an issue. Lillian sent someone to kill him for what he did to you, I don't think they will give up as easily as we did. I just wish I could have seen his obsession sooner. That's the hard part for me, knowing him for so long and not seeing it coming until it was too late.” She looked pained as she explained it.

Lena put her hand on her shoulder. “I know it's not the same, Lex is a violent dangerous psychopath to anyone that knows him, but he wasn't always. At one point, he was my big brother and he was everything you could ask for in a brother. Everything. He was kind, loving, caring, he taught me everything he learned, let me join in his work. When our father died, he stood as much as possible between Lillian and I and her cruelty. Yes he had his moments, I think all people of brilliance do, but I never saw that coming. When I heard what he had done, I remember exactly where I was. I was in a meeting when I got the call. I had to leave the office quickly and I threw up so violently so many times. Jess was with me, poor thing had no idea what to say. I honestly couldn't believe it. I never saw it coming, I swear. I think when you spend time with people day in and day out, you don't see the change happen, then you wake up one day and they are a different person and you wonder if you could have done something to help, to change it. But I don't think you can, people are who they are. There was nothing we could have done for either James or Lex.”

Alex was rubbing her eyes aggressively, smearing her eyeliner everywhere. “God damn it Luthor, I swear it was easier when I didn't like you.”

Lena chuckled. “Don't worry, I am sure you will still be plotting my death on my wedding day to your sister.”

Kara looked up, her head bouncing between the two of them. “Wait! What? Wedding? You threatened to kill Lena at our wedding? Alex! That's low, even for you.” She glared at her sister.

Maggie laughed. “I think it's cute that they both just mentioned their wedding and didn't freak out.”

Kara and Lena chose that moment to realize what was said, and freaked out.

****

Kara flopped them both on the bed, taking the brunt herself. “You have no idea how much I missed you.” She kissed down Lena's neck and began removing her blouse.

“I didn't go anywhere darling, we could have been together if you were able to control yourself from flinging me around the bedroom.” Lena chuckled.

Kara whined. “That's just it though, I cant control myself around you. I mean have you see you?”

“I've seen more of me recently than you have.” Lena replied. She waited for a few seconds for it to sink into Kara's brain. Kara glowed like a beacon. “And there it is.” She laughed.

“Just for that, you don't get to go on top.” Kara finished removing Lena's blouse and started on her own.

“Oh no, whatever will I do, however will I cope, Supergirl no, think of the children.” She deadpanned.

Kara stopped what she was doing and looked down. “What?”

Lena shrugged. “Isn't that what people say when they are trying to be dramatic?”

Kara shook her head and went back to undressing. “You're being weird. Stop it.”

“You like it when I'm weird.” She leaned up and whispered something into Kara's ear.

“That's a completely different kind of weird and you know it. Anyway, too much talking, quiet now, doing sex things.”

Lena started laughing. She had missed being with Kara. It was hard to give something up when you had just been given it, but Kara was taking no chances with her healing so there had been lots of cuddling and kissing and absolutely nothing else.

Until tonight.

And Lena was more than ready for her super powered lover to go crazy with her.

Kara had them both naked in record time and was kissing down Lena's stomach. Lena lifted her leg and wrapped it around Kara's hips as she started to grind against Kara's abs.

“I've missed you too, like this I mean. You make me feel so fucking good.” Lena breathed out.

Kara slid her fingers through her lovers folds, groaning at the wetness she found there. “I love making you feel good. I love what you let me do to you. I could honestly do this all day with just a small orgasm for me break every now and then.”

Lena grabbed Kara's hair in her hands dragging her back up to kiss her. She breathed into Kara's mouth and she felt her fingers push inside her with more strength. “What I let you do to me? Sounds like you have something in mind.” She purred sending lust charging down Kara's spine.

Kara thrust her fingers in harder, pounding relentlessly, relishing in Lena's breath washing over her and the soft grunts that came with it. Without warning, she flipped Lena onto her stomach, knelt between her legs she pulled her hips back into her face, burying her tongue into Lena from behind. “Wanna strap you.” She mumbled.

“Fuck. Yes. Kara. Anything.” Lena stretched her top half forward, happy to feel no residual strain on her ribs. She pushed her hips backwards to encourage her voracious lover. “Anything.”

“Grab the harness for me.” Kara looked up for a second before going back to what she was doing. Lena passed her the harness and the dildo that fit in it. “Not that one, the glass one.”

Lena groaned and threw it behind her, raising her ass as she did. “Remember to go slow with that.”

Kara muffled a reply before she shot upright and flicked off the sex box. “Holy shit! I forgot! I'll be right back.” She stood up and tapped Lena on the ass gently. “Stay right there, don't move.” And she rushed out of the apartment window at super speed.

She arrived back in the bedroom after less than two minutes to see Lena sat at the head of the bed, sheets pulled up to her neck and she looked furious. Kara was wondering if her eyes were about to turn red and she would have to be skipping around lasers zapping all over the room. She turned the sex box back on, concerned that it might not be needed tonight.

“Kara.” She all but whispered. The tone carried a multitude of promises, not least of which was _if you don't have the best reason in the world for this, I am never having sex with you again._

Kara started spluttering. “OK, in retrospect I can see that wasn't the nicest thing to do.”

Lena cut her off. “You ran out of my bed, naked, on a Supergirl call, leaving me with my ass in the air, quite literally, I want you to take the word nice out of your vocabulary and replace it with grovelling apologies and possibly some jewellery.” She seethed.

“Oh. It wasn't a Supergirl emergency. It's just do you remember before you were hurt, I told you I bought a strap on. Because I didn't want to do, you know, that, “ She tilted her head at Lena's groin area. “with a glass strap on. And you said the other one was too big. When we were in the, you know, “ She lowered her voice “sex store. So I went online because I really wanted to, do, that, you know, again, but with more enthusiasm. I mean not that I wasn't enthusiastic before, I was totally enthusiastic, which is why I spent so long searching through the reviews to find the best one. And I bought it and I was super excited to use it, but then, that happened and I forgot all about it while I worried about you getting better. But then you were laying there with your, you know, in the air and I told you I wanted to do, you know, that, to you and you were gonna let me and I got excited and I suddenly remembered what I bought and I wasn't sure if I did, you know, that with your, you know,” she nodded at the groin again. “whether I was allowed to do it twice in one night and I just couldn't wait!”

Lena stared at her mumbling girlfriend and did her best not to laugh. “Say it.” She said.

Kara looked confused. “Say what?”

“What you want to do.”

Kara opened and closed her mouth a few times. “Why?”

“Because you killed the mood, so the least you can do is bring the mood back. So say it.” She raised the eyebrow that Kara knew meant she was likely not going to get out of this.

“OK. I. Kara Danvers. Me, that is. I mean you know it's me, cause I'm here with you, naked. Anyway. I would like. What I mean, is that I am sorry, for running out, just as I was about to, um, you know...”

Lena interrupted. “Just as you were about to?”

Kara scowled. “Just as I about to, do, something, to you.”

“Do what to me Kara?” Lena was really struggling to keep herself still now.

“Do I really have to spell it out.” She whined again. “I mean look! I bought the best one on the market. It had 5 star reviews from everywhere. And it cost a lot of money.” She pulled it out of the packaging and thrust it in Lena's face.

Lena lost it. She screamed with laughter. It was the ugliest, neon orange colour imaginable. “Jesus Mary & Joseph what were you thinking! You leave me high and not so dry and come back with a cock shaped traffic cone and expect me to roll over again? I mean fuck me Kara, turn off the lights. Turn them off, now.” 

A bewildered Kara did as she was told and Lena howled with laughter. “I knew it, it fucking glows in the dark! Oh my fuck, Kara, Kara, Kara.” She gradually slowed her laughter, opening her arms for Kara to hold her.

“I know its not the sexiest looking thing.” Lena started laughing again. “But! It's not like you're gonna see it right? But look at the marketing, it is totally gonna be worth it!” She handed over the package to Lena to read when she put the lights back on.

Lena started laughing again. At this rate Kara was sure her ribs were going to be sore before she had even had the chance to start over.

“Did you read this? _**The Analyzer: Does your thinking for you!**_ I mean honest to God Kara.” And she started laughing again.

Kara slumped on the bed. “What do I need to do to make this better? I know leaving was stupid, now. I just got excited.”

Lena took pity on her. She leaned across her naked top, kissed her with more and more passion and she played and pulled with Kara's breasts. “Let's try this. You put the other harness on, no giggling or making teenage boy jokes and rail me into the mattress until I forget what that God forsaken thing that you want to shove in my ass looks like. Try to have a conversation with me that doesn't involve the words _you know_ and _like that_ and _in there_ , while mumbling and nodding and then, I will consider letting you ' _Analyze me_ ' cause frankly after this last month or so I could do with some time not thinking about anything. How does that sound.”

Kara thought it was the best offer she was going to get and jumped up to grab Lena's harness and the regular attachment it came with. On a whim she shot into the bathroom and grabbed the mouthwash as well. She put a small amount of lube on the regular dildo, gently caressing her hand up and down to cover it. She knelt down on the floor, pulling Lena to the edge of the bed, pushing her legs open and buried her face in Lena's centre.

Lena moaned low in her chest and draped her legs over Kara's shoulders. Kara stayed where she was, idly drawing Kryptonian sigils against her clit. She dropped her head down and pushed her tongue as far as it would go into Lena cunt. It wasn't the best angle to do this and she was still mildly concerned about flinging Lena around just yet, so she stayed as she was and used her muscle strength to get as deep as she could. When Lena started writhing around in excitement she decided surprising her lover would get some potential analyzer points so she lowered her head and ran her tongue over Lena's ass.

The instant reaction of Lena grabbing onto her hair and pulling her closer told her she made the right call. She pushed her tongue in as far as she was able leaving as much saliva around as she could, she made as much noise as possible, slurping and smacking against the flesh until she could see how wet Lena had got. She stood up, slapped the side of Lena's thigh and in a commanding voice told her. “Move back a little.” She grabbed a couple of pillows and shoved them under the small of Lena's back, raising her up so Kara could penetrate her standing. She grabbed the mouthwash, took a gulp, swishing it around and realizing she had no where to put it, screwed her eyes and swallowed. She leant forward, the cock placed at Lena's entrance, her face by Lena's ear. “I'm gonna make you scream my name so loudly Alex is gonna complain from the other side of town.” She promised. Without warning, she slammed the cock inside until she felt the freshly waxed skin of Lena's cunt slide against her. 

And she started pounding. Because Lena had one of those really high beds that you had to practically climb on, having Lena on a pair of fluffy pillows meant that Kara was at the same level as she was and she used every ounce of her reduced strength to drive into her. Lifting Lena's legs up to rest her ankles on Kara's shoulders she drove and drove and drove back and forth until she felt the sweat rolling down her back. Lena's face was beautiful, she was panting, noises mostly, but Kara could hear her name in there as well. Each time she heard it she drove harder. When Kara thought she might collapse from exhaustion she waited for the next time Lena looked at her, when their eyes met Kara smirked. “That feel good baby? It's OK, you don't need to answer that, I can tell how good it feels just by looking. Your face is flushed half way down your chest, your cunt is getting so tight I'm having to fight my way inside you, you wanna come so badly, I can see it.” She took a breath. “Fuck, I know I wanna come. If this thing was functional, I could just pull out right now and come all over your tits'

Lena let out the dirtiest groan Kara had ever heard from her. “Sadly I cant do that, but let me try this again. Are you gonna let me flip you over, put you on all fours and and let me fuck you in the ass?”

Lena shot forward, mashing their mouths together in an obscene kiss. “Too much talking, more sex things.”

Kara quite literally picked up her and flipped her over. Lena crawled to her hands and knees, her back bowed over the pillows under her hips, she was on full display, spread out for Kara. Lena reached down between her thighs and started to rub her clit gently. Kara had the new harness and its ghastly orange counterpart in place. She knelt behind Lena again and watched up close as Lena touched herself. “Would you do that for me one day? She ran her thumb in the copious wetness, smearing it to her ass. Would you spread yourself open and let me watch, let me tell you what to do?”

There was a muffled groan that sounded affirmative to Kara. “Hmm, I'd like that.” She put her mouth back, licking through Lena's cunt, wide strokes like she was a fucking ice cream cone, but much sweeter. All while rubbing and pushing against her ass with her thumb. She pulled Lena's hand away, pushing it back to the front of the bed. “Gonna fuck your ass now. That clear enough for you princess? Gonna push my cock into your hole and you're gonna take it all for me and you're gonna scream while I make you cum all over me. You ever squirted before? Bet I can make that happen.” She stood up making Lena whine. Kara pressed the smooth silicon against her ass and pushed in slowly.

Lena had lost track of why they might have been fighting. If they were ever really fighting. All she knew was Kara was doing things to her body that made her feel like she could leave her body at any given moment and she didn't want it to stop. Kara was growling the most obscene things about what she was going to do, seconds before she did them. It was less talking dirty and more courteous announcements. When Kara pushed into her ass she expected it to be exploratory like she had been with the glass one, but this silicone toy wasn't much bigger than the glass, perfectly smooth and small enough that Kara pushed right past the ring of muscle and was buried to the hilt inside her. She heard one more disgusting comment about what was about to happen and vaguely wondering if she had ever squirted during sex when the driving rhythm from before reappeared. Kara was fucking her like a stevedore on shore leave. It wasn't painful, but it was more. The feeling was so much more intense than being fucked in a regular way and after what Kara had done while she was on her back Lena felt like she couldn't get any higher.

A feeling that Kara quietly disproved by slapping her on the back of her ass really hard. She did it a second time in a different place and thought she heard something like 'Sigmund Freud, Analyze this' She felt too good to bring it up right now, but she would store that for another more embarrassing time. Kara kept bringing her hand down to spank all over Lena's ass as she pounded into her. Lena suddenly felt it, she knew it was going to happen although she had no idea how, the warm feeling ran down her spine, into her belly and finally down into her clit. She was gonna come and she was gonna come screaming. It hit her like a firebrand, her eyes were screwed tight white pulsing lights in tune with her rapidly beating heart rate and sure enough, a rush of fluids came out and soaked Kara's lap earning her one last slap and a super loud _fuck yeah_ from Kara.

Her body refused to hold her up any longer, she felt herself slide off Kara's cock rather than Kara pulling out. It almost aroused her again but her treacherous body wouldn't comply. She rolled over flat on her back, arms outstretched, unconcerned with the large wet patch she was laying in. She felt rather than saw Kara moving around the apartment, she wasn't sure if her vocal chords would cooperate but she tried none the less. “I need a few minutes baby, then I can take care of you.”

She felt the mattress dip on either side of her head and looked up in surprise. Kara was knelt just in her eye line sliding her fingers through her own soaking folds. “Stay still, relax baby, I'll take care of this, I just want you to watch. Can you do that for me Lena, can you watch me come for you.” Kara hissed as she rolled across her own clit, it wouldn't take long. Lena looked up, her eyes wide as arousal ran through her useless body again. “Fuck Kara. That is the hottest fucking thing I have ever seen, I swear I will never tease you again for being embarrassed about sex. Unless I get more of this, then game on.”

Kara knelt forward, Lena could almost taste her and would have if her neck would let her move. “You are so fucking beautiful, I want you to come over my face Kara, can you do that? Come over my face baby.”

Kara grunted one last time before her body went rigid and she fell forward half on top of her lover. They lay there quietly for a minute, both trying to touch the other without having to move much. Finally Kara rolled over and kissed Lena's stomach. “Any last words?” She mumbled into her skin.

Lena chuckled. “I can honestly say, I have no regrets about anything that happened in the last few hours and nothing will change my mind on that.” They both chuckled and fell clumsily asleep.

****

Maggie sat quietly reading the news on her tablet over her morning coffee. Alex was still in the shower so she idly flicked through the article listings. She scrolled down a half a page and nearly spat her coffee out. The headline read; _Did this amateur photographer capture a film glitch or is this really Supergirl in her Super birthday suit. Leave your thoughts below!_ Maggie spat our her coffee before forwarding the article to Lena with a comment; _WTF Dude._

****

“Are you sure this is safe?” Kara was shifting one foot to the other, nervously looking at the 'pod' as they had nicknamed it.

“Only one way to find out!” Lena answered her far more flippantly than Kara would have liked. “I've done as many calculations as I can, I have sent more vegetables and other non discussed masses around the world than I care to think about. The comms work, any important levels from my body are metered and will come through to your ear piece on the off chance I am unconscious. The electrical charged flight system will carry me 187 miles in the event that you drop me.” She glared at Kara. “It's waterproof, has full emergency flotation devices if I land in the water, if the system detects any kind of crash it sends an emergency tracking signal with full co-ordinates to Twofer and Alex's phones. I cant think of anything else I missed?”

“I guess.” Kara mumbled. “No, you know what? You're right. It's an incredible piece of engineering, I cant believe you did it while you were supposedly laid up with broken ribs!”

Lena smirked. “You know what they say about the devil and idle hands darling.”

Kara laughed. “OK! Let's do this! Once more around the world for luck!” She carried Lena up to the roof of the lab to the small metal cabinet that housed her latest project. She pulled it out herself despite Lena's objections citing Lena's still healing ribs.

“You really think after what you recently put me through that my ribs are still sore?” She raised an eyebrow at her blushing lover.

“S'not the same.”

“Uh huh. OK, you know what to do, let's do something amazing!” Lena hopped into the small pod, sat upright with her legs stretched out. She pulled the glass aerodynamic lid down and hooked her hands into the controls she would need in the event something went wrong. “You read me loud and clear Supergirl?” She spoke into the comms.

“We can hear you Irish!” A male voice came over the radio along with a small squeal and a “Go Aunty Lena!”

“We can hear you as well 'Aunty' Lena.” Alex's sarcastic remark came through along with Maggie's laughter.

“Kara you remember how we said we were going to do this quietly and without telling anyone?” Lena glared through the glass.

“Cant quite hear you over the turbulence Lena.” Kara grinned.

“You know I can see through the glass, we're on the fucking roof Kara.” Lena snapped at her.

There was laughter over the radio as Kara situated herself on top of the pod. She slipped her feet into the section at the rear that would allow her to fly horizontally. She gripped the front loop with one hand and floated upwards, holding her arm forward in her flight mode, they took off.

As they reached half way speed that was deemed safe, Kara checked in with Lena. “All good here, speed it up to three quarters and check again.” Lena spoke.

“Roger that Captain Luthor!” Kara quipped to general amusement.

As they approached the agreed maximum velocity for safety, Lena read out the numbers and pronounced it a success to whoops and cheers from the listeners.

They were now flying over the ocean when Lena said the words that Kara was dreading. 

“OK, drop me.” Lena's confident voice rang out. 

Kara cringed but knew it had to be done. “Dropping in 3, 2, 1. Activating Facebook live!”

Lena felt a shunt as the pod slowed down far faster than expected. She took a deep breath and activated self flight mode. Now flying along at more human speeds she looked out of the window and grinned maniacally at her floating girlfriend who was pointing her cell phone at her with a thumbs up. There were cheers and congratulations over the radio as Kara tucked her phone away and re-situated herself on the pod. Lena deactivated the flight mode and left herself in Kara's capable hands.

When the radio quietened down, Kara swerved them to the new co-ordinates. “OK guys, going off comms now, we are approaching the Australian coast and need to be in stealth mode.”

The radio crackled once more and a deep breath was heard. “Kara, what are you doing in Australian waters that requires stealth?” 

“Operation Sea Panda Rescue Baby!”

“God damn it Kara!” Alex snapped before Lena joyfully disconnected the radio.

****

The woman walked into Catco, hair perfectly coiffured, her dress straight from the Milan runways. Her larger than normal bag looked as though it was packed to bursting and yet still didn't slow her down. She walked past the now silent and occasional whispering people at their desks. No one took their eyes off her, a mixture of fear and excitement.

She reached the end of the bullpen took a deep breath, spun around and shattered the silence of the office.

“What in the hell is going on with my office? And where the hell is my Kiera!”

****

fin


End file.
